Herutsu no Oukoku
by Kishiro Kitsune
Summary: AU Shonen ai later. When the Heartless invade the worlds there's only one group who can stop them. Kairi wants to restore her home and Sora is looking for his best friend Riku. Enter Axel who is looking for his best friend, and Demyx, who wants to go home
1. Chapter 1: Princess of Heart

Summary: AU. Mild shonen ai. In a parallel universe, Kairi and Sora are both wielders of the keyblade. Kairi wants to restore her home and Sora is looking for his best friend Riku. Enter Axel, who wants to find his "little buddy", and Demyx, who just wants to go home. And then there's Naminé who is Merlin's apprentice and seems to know more than what she lets on. RikuSora AkuRoku

_**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Disney characters. They belong to Square Enix and Disney respectively.

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 1: Princess of Heart_

Kairi carefully gathered the books into her arms that were at the main desk. In the dim library, which was where she worked part time, her thin-framed glasses reflected what little light was there. Her long red hair, wrapped up in a single braid, appeared to be a dark brown because of the little light. Her clothes were in neutral shades of gray, white, and black and consisted of loose black cargo pants, a white t-shirt and a gray jacket. Worn-out sneakers covered her feet.

"Kairi!" One of her male co-workers, and best friend, called out. "I'm heading home for the night so don't forget to lock up when you're finished!"

Kairi made sure the books were well balanced in her arms before she looked up and nodded. "Alright. I'll see you tomorrow, Katsuo."

The raven-haired boy, clothed in a black t-shirt that had a yellow packman on it and patched blue jeans, saluted Kairi with a smile and then shuffled out of the library to begin his walk home. The two of them both lived in a neighborhood near the library in their little town and often walked to work together. Since Kairi usually stayed at the library longer, they rarely walked home together.

Kairi continued with her evening duty of putting books back on the shelves in the correct places. In twenty-five minutes the last of the books was put on one of the shelves and Kairi breathed a sigh of relief. With a smile on her face she set about locking up the library and turning off the lights. One of her first stops was the backroom where they kept books that needed repairing. She had to put one of the books in there earlier and didn't have a chance to lock up the room.

She flipped on the light and looked around the room to make sure everything was in the right place. A satisfied smile crossed her face and she flicked off the light and shut the door. Then she took the keys off of her belt loop and locked the door.

A shiver ran down her spine as she turned away from the door. She scanned over the empty library with her blue-violet eyes and wearily noted that the lights seemed dimmer than usual. Figuring it was just because she was in the brightest room of the library, Kairi shrugged off the oddity and continued making her way around the library to lock up rooms and shut down computers.

As she padded through one row of shelves after locking the bathroom door, a creek made her stop in her tracks and look around. When the noise wasn't repeated after a minute or two she continued on for a few steps before she heard another noise.

"H-hello?" She asks aloud, trying to keep her voice from trembling. It does anyway. "Who's there?!"

A breeze moved across her neck and the sound of something landing on the floor behind her was heard. Kairi turned around, holding the keys in the air as if they would be a good defense. She saw nothing.

"Katsuo, this isn't funny!" She yelled, fear entering her voice. Her friend had only done that once and it scared her so badly that he swore on his stack of video games and comics that he would never do it again. She slowly backed up, praying to whatever deity that would listen that there really was nothing there and it was just the building settling.

A solid black shadow leapt out of nowhere and landed on her back. Kairi screamed and swung her arm to knock it away. A warm, tingling feeling flowed through her hand and she turned around to see more of the solid shadow creatures. She slowly backed up, not knowing what to do, and then they all attacked. She immediately threw her arms up defensively and let out a soft cry of fear as she closed her eyes. A light so intense that she could see it behind her closed eyes flooded the area and then she knew no more.

0-0-0

Kairi awoke to a buzzing sound in her ears and felt like her entire body was on fire. With a groan she opened her eyes and looked around. At first her brain didn't register where she was, but after looking around for a few minutes things clicked into place. Kairi gasped and jumped to her feet, biting back a cry of pain when her spine flamed in protest.

She took a few calming breaths and was relieved to find that the pain ebbed away with each breath until it was just a dull throb. Then she looked around to try and figure out where she was. It was no place she had ever seen before, with tall pale brown buildings and brown cobblestone streets. Twisted iron-wrought lamps lit up the main courtyard and the streets on either side of the courtyard.

"Rarf!"

Kairi jumped, which caused pain to lace up her back momentarily. Fortunately, as soon as it came it was gone. Looking around, Kairi spotted a yellow dog with black ears and a wagging black tail. "Hey there, fellow. Are you lost?" She asked.

The dog barked again and ran circles around Kairi before running off a short distance. Then he stopped and turned around the bark at her again before he ran a few feet and stopped. Kairi figured that the dog wanted her to follow him so she started walking. The dog happily barked and continued to run, stopping every now and then to let Kairi catch up.

Kairi chased after the dog until they reached two large doors at the end of the path. Before Kairi could even get within four feet of the door, the shadow creatures appeared again and blocked the path. Kairi took a step back fearfully, recognizing the creatures as the ones who attacked her at the library. The creatures attacked and she once again closed her eyes and threw her arms up defensively. A strange weight appeared in her hands and there was one flash of light before the creatures backed off.

When she didn't feel tiny claws ripping at her, Kairi opened her eyes and lowered her arms. She gasped when she saw what she was holding. The first thing that came to her mind was, "Flowers" but then she took a better look at it. Then she noticed it was shaped a lot like a key with a straight pale yellow bar that ran straight through and changed to red at the very tip. At the tip were flowers and vines that stuck out on only one side. The handle was curved and shaped like a heart when held with the tip pointing down. On one side the heart was just pale yellow, but on the other side the pale yellow faded to blue and looked like waves. A key chain hung from the handle and it was in the shape of a yellow star with two leaves coming off one of the points.

One of the creatures lunged for her, but before Kairi could so much as try and bat it away with her new weapon, a loud bang was heard and the creature dissolved into nothing. The rest of the creatures, as well as Kairi, turned their attention to whom it was who shot the creature.

"Damn Heartless!" The man yelled as he shot at a few more. He briskly walked forward, slicing at Heartless who got in his way. His black clothes helped him blend in with the shadows before, but when he got out into the light he was more noticeable. The red on his sleeve and on the back of his jacket stuck out in particular. He charged past Kairi to fight the Heartless.

Kairi started edging away when a few of the Heartless nearly escaped the man's wrath, but before they could get too close a young woman in bright green, yellow, and orange clothing leapt from the roof of one of the buildings with a fierce battle cry. She slashed at the Heartless nearing Kairi with a large wooden throwing star. "Can you fight with that thing?" She asked Kairi, gesturing to the flowery thing the redhead was holding.

Kairi forcefully swallowed, her throat almost painfully dry from fear. "I- I don't know." She stuttered.

"It's worth a shot, right?" The raven-haired girl asked before she turned around and slung the large throwing star at the Heartless. "Alright there, Squall?" She asked the man.

"It's Leon, Yuffie." He growled back.

Yuffie just laughed. "Whatever you say." A Heartless got close to her and she punched it away before throwing smaller throwing stars at it. She glanced back to check on Kairi and saw a Heartless sneaking up on the newcomer. "Behind you!" She yelled out. "Swing at it or something!" A Heartless attacked her from behind and she angrily threw it off before pelting it with her throwing stars.

Kairi turned around at Yuffie's yell and backed up about a foot before remembering Yuffie's suggestion. She tightened her grip on her flowery weapon and swung it at the Heartless twice before the creature disappeared.

"Leon, I'm taking her to Aerith!" Yuffie yelled to her companion. "Can you handle things here?" The only thing she got in response was a grunt. She rolled her eyes and then ran over to Kairi and grabbed her hand. "Come on! We're getting out of here."

Kairi didn't have the energy to argue, so she let Yuffie drag her to the door and then through it. On the other side Yuffie breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over." She gave Kairi a smile. "I'm Yuffie, by the way. The Great Ninja Yuffie!" She punched a fist into the air with a triumphant yell. A few people stared at her for a moment before going about with their own business. "So," Yuffie put all of her attention on Kairi. "What's your name?"

"Kairi."

"Well, Kairi, I take it you're new here to Traverse Town." Yuffie said. "You probably don't even know what that is." She pointed to the flowery weapon. "Of course, I don't really know either, but you can bet Squall does!" She laughed. "Don't tell him I called him that though." She said with a wink. "He doesn't like it when I call him by his-- Hi Leon!"

Leon glared at Yuffie, knowing that she was talking about him. "You were taking her to Aerith." He reminded her.

Yuffie happily saluted Leon. "Yes, sir!" With a giggle she took Kairi's hand and began leading the girl through 1st district to a small shop with a lit up neon 'Accessory' sign on the very front. She tugged Kairi through the front door and happily greeted the brown-haired woman in pink sitting behind the counter. "Aerith, we've got another one!" She cheerfully said as she let go of Kairi's hand. "Kairi, this is Aerith, our resident healer. Aerith, this is Kairi!"

Aerith gave Kairi a soft smile and then her hands flew to her mouth and she gasped when she saw the weapon Kairi was holding. "Another keyblade!"

Kairi looked down at the weapon with a puzzled look on her face. Then she looked back up at Aerith. "A what?" She politely asked.

"A keyblade." Aerith repeated, lowering her hands. "It's odd, you're the second keyblade wielder to show up here today."

"Where is here?" Kairi asked. "I'm not even sure where I'm at anymore. I was at the library closing up for the night and those… things attacked me and I blacked out. When I woke up I was here." She looked to Aerith, hoping the older woman would have answers.

"You're in Traverse Town." Yuffie cheerfully reminds her. "So that's another one of those keyblades, huh." She edged a little closer to the flowery weapon to get a better look. "It doesn't look very threatening."

As if trying to defend itself, the keyblade sent a small lighting bolt to strike Yuffie's hand. Yuffie yelped and pulled her hand away and Kairi looked at her in concern and let go of the keyblade. Once she let go of it, the keyblade disappeared, but Kairi didn't even notice because she was busy making sure Yuffie wasn't hurt badly.

"I'm fine, Kairi." Yuffie said. "It's just a little shock, that's all."

Kairi looked relieved. "That's good."

A groan was heard from the other room and attracted the attention of the three girls. Aerith immediately hurried to the room, which left Yuffie alone with Kairi.

"Who's that?" Kairi asked.

"Must be the boy we found earlier." Yuffie responded as she walked over to the counter. She put her back to the counter and then hopped up on it, happily taking a seat. "He's the other keyblade wielder Aerith mentioned. Maybe you two will get along."

"Maybe…" Kairi murmured unsurely.

0-0-0

End Chapter

0-0-0

Shiro: So how do you like the first chapter? You know, putting Kairi in a good role in these fanfictions makes me like her a whole lot more. The only time she really annoys me is... throughout all of the first Kingdom Hearts. Yeah. She's pretty cool in KH2 though. And Kairi's friend, Katsuo, he won't show up until the very end of the fanfiction and then he'll be reintroduced. I'm not really sure what purpose he serves right now other than just being a friend to Kairi.

NEXT: _Chapter 2: The Keyblade Master_


	2. Chapter 2: The Keyblade Master

_**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Disney characters. They belong to Square Enix and Disney respectively.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 2: The Keyblade Master_

"Riku!" Sora ran around the sandy beach, his head turning in all directions in hopes of catching sight of his friend's bright white hair. "Riku, where are you?" He yelled. His spiky brown hair bounced with every step and the chain around his neck and on his pants clinked together.

Clothed in bright red pants, a red shirt, a blue, black, and white short-sleeve jacket, and large bright yellow sneakers, Sora wasn't the easiest person to not see. On the other hand, Riku wasn't hard to miss either, with his yellow and black shirt, dark blue pants, and blue and white sneakers, but Sora still managed to do just that.

"Gotcha!"

Riku flew out of a bush and tackled Sora and the two landed heavily in the sand. Sora struggled for a few minutes before Riku managed to pin him down so he had no choice but to give in. Sora pouted and stopped moving, disappointed that he had once again lost to Riku.

Riku leaned down with a smirk, his sea-green eyes boring straight into Sora's sky blue eyes, and said, "I win."

"Yeah, yeah." Sora grumbled. "Could you let me up?"

Riku's eyes took on a playful glint. "Let me think about that." He pretended to think about letting Sora up, but didn't move so Sora could get free. Sora tried to squirm away, but soon found there was no hope of escaping without Riku's consent and stopped squirming.

"Riku, come on!" He whined.

Riku smirked. "How about, 'no'?" He asked before he removed his hands. For a split second Sora thought Riku was letting him up, but his hopes were dashed when Riku began to mercilessly tickle him. Sora was soon laughing so hard that he could barely breathe and his eyes were tearing up. He tried to squirm every which way to escape Riku's tickling, but, like always, it was just no use.

"R-R-Riku!" Sora stuttered through laughter.

The tickling lightened up for a second or two and then came back full force. "Not a chance!" Riku exclaimed.

"Riku!" Sora yelled. "I'll do it! Just stop!"

Riku stopped tickling his friend and sat back with a triumphant smirk on his face. "I knew you'd see it my way. Now lets go!" He stood up straight and held a hand out for Sora to take. Sora hesitated a moment and wondered if it was just a joke before he took Riku's hand and let the older boy pull him to his feet.

"So what are we going to do?" Sora asked.

"We're going to explore that cave near the waterfall." Riku replied. He started walking in the direction of the cave, expecting Sora to follow him.

Sora looked worried at the mention of the cave, although he had no idea why. When Riku first found the cave Sora's heart began pounding fiercely and he ran all the way across the bridge to the small paopu island before Riku caught up to him. Ever since then he had refused to go anywhere near the cave.

Sora ran to catch up to Riku and tried to talk his friend out of going into the cave, but Riku didn't listen to one word. And then Riku grabbed Sora's wrist when they got close to the cave so the brunet couldn't run off. Sora struggled against Riku's grip for a moment before he gave up and let himself be dragged along. He began trembling when they got into the tunnel and by the time they got to the main cave he was shaking from head to toe. Riku looked at him in concern and started to ask him something when the cave went even darker than it was before.

"What's going on?" Riku asked, stepping closer to Sora to protect his friend. "Who's there?"

Hundreds of shadows surrounded the boys and started closing in on them. A single word popped into Sora's head and he shouted it out. "Heartless!" A warm tingling feeling collected in his hand and Sora subconsciously acknowledged and welcomed the feeling as he stepped closer to Riku.

"What?" Riku asked. He had never heard nor seen anything like the creatures around them and he wondered how Sora knew of them. Odder still to him was the familiarity of the scene. Riku didn't notice the Heartless sneaking up on him, but Sora did.

"Watch out!" Sora yelled. He pushed Riku out of the way and swung a fist at the creatures. The tingling feeling intensified and a bright light flashed and chased back some of the Heartless. A weight settled in Sora's hand, but he paid no real attention to what it was and began using it to fight back the Heartless. When he got a chance to, he glanced back at Riku only to find his friend overpowered by the Heartless. "Riku!" He yelled, rushing forward to help.

Sora was too late and he watched helplessly as a swirling black portal appeared beneath Riku and swallowed him into its depths. He ran forward in hopes of following Riku, but found himself falling through endless darkness. Then he blacked out.

* * *

"Hey, hey! Wake up!"

Sora tried his best to ignore the speaker, wanting nothing more than to continue sleeping. His plans went unfulfilled when he was roughly shaken awake. He slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of an unfamiliar girl who had short raven hair and brown eyes.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Sora looked at her in confusion for a moment, his brain not quite registering what the girl was asking. She repeated her question and he snapped out of his daze enough to answer with a soft, "Yes."

"That's a relief." The girl said with a sigh. "For a second there I thought the Heartless had gotten you."

"Heartless?" Sora asked. He may have called the creatures that before, but it was only on a whim. He had no idea they were really called Heartless.

The girl nodded. "Yeah. They're these bad shadow things that attack people and steal their hearts. You've got to be careful around here because they're everywhere." As she spoke, a few Heartless crept toward them. She noticed them immediately and fended them off with a fierce yell.

Sora scrambled to his feet as the girl beat back the Heartless and a familiar weight settled in his right hand. When the shadow creatures got close to him he fought back using the newly acquired weapon. When he had a chance, he took a quick glimpse at the weapon and surmised that the best way to describe it would be to call it an oversized key.

"Impressive!" The girl remarked as she used her large shuriken to destroy three Heartless in one shot. "Think you can keep up?" She asked.

Sora gave a short nod, not wanting to trust his voice at that moment.

"Good. Follow me!" The girl shouted. She ran forward with a battle cry and slashed at the Heartless in her path. Sora was quick to follow, not wanting to be around the creatures any more than he had to. That and the girl was the only person he had seen so far and he hoped to get some answers from her. "This way!" She shouted, leading Sora up some steps. She continued to slash at the Heartless in her way and Sora followed her and did the same. The two came to two large doors and the girl skidded to a stop. "Go through those doors and look for a woman in pink named Aerith. Tell her that Yuffie needs backup!" She shoved Sora toward the door. "Go! I can handle things here for a minute or two!"

Sora did as she asked and pushed his way through one of the doors. Yuffie continued to battle the Heartless and keep them away from the door until Sora closed the door. Once the door was closed she was less cautious and waited for the Heartless to go to her instead of chasing them down.

In First District, Sora ran through the streets in search of anyone. With each step his breathing grew more labored and came in shorter breaths. He stumbled out into the courtyard and spotting a young woman with long brown hair wearing a pink dress talking to a man with brown hair dressed in mostly black.

"A-Aerith!" Sora stumbled over his own two feet and nearly fell before he reached the two. By then his vision was started to go blurry and he was feeling faint. "Yuffie- Heartless- needs backup-said-find-you." He stopped in front of them, breathing heavily. Once his message from Yuffie was delivered he closed his eyes and let his body drop to the ground in a dead faint. Aerith gasped and immediately went to her knees to make sure he was all right while the man eyed the key-shaped weapon Sora was holding.

"The keyblade wielder." He murmured. "Just like King Mickey said."

"Leon." Aerith's soft voice cut through the brunet's thoughts. "Go help Yuffie."

Leon nodded and then ran off toward the large doors to help his comrade. That left Aerith alone to take Sora to the small house-shop they were sharing and lay him down somewhere more comfortable. After she got him inside and on the couch in one of the side rooms, she made sure there were no terrible wounds and then went back out into the main shop to mind the counter. Just as she was settling herself behind the counter, Yuffie barged through the doors, tugging a pretty redhead behind her.

"Aerith, we've got another one!" She cheerfully greeted. "Kairi, this is Aerith, our resident healer. Aerith, this is Kairi!"

The three girls chatted for a while and Aerith and Yuffie told Kairi that she was in Traverse Town. Then a groan from the next room was heard and Aerith rushed off to check on Sora.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Shiro: And that brings up back up to where we left off in the first chapter. Whatcha guys think of it so far? Are the introductions too confusing? The descriptions not good? Any comments on the flow of the story? Let me know! _Constructive _criticism is something I could really use.

NEXT: _Chapter 3: Two Weilders Meet_


	3. Chapter 3: Two Wielders Meet

_**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Disney characters. They belong to Square Enix and Disney respectively.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 3: Two Wielders Meet_

Kairi and Yuffie stood in the shop not really talking to one another. Yuffie hummed a song under her breath and bounced on the balls of her feet, still on an adrenaline kick from fighting Heartless. The two looked up when Aerith ushered in a worn-out looking Sora

"You look horrible." Yuffie remarked. "Maybe you should go back to sleep."

"Yuffie!" Aerith scolded, not at all surprised by the teenager's brashness. Yuffie had always been that way and wasn't likely to change just because of a few unfortunate incidents.

"I can't do that." Sora said stubbornly. "I've got to go find Riku."

Aerith looked a little curious. "Riku?"

Sora nodded. "He's my best friend. Hey, Yuffie," He looked over at the raven-haired girl hoping that he got her name right. "Was there anyone else near where you found me? Like a guy with white hair who's about this tall." He held a hand up about a half foot over his head.

Yuffie shook her head. "Nope. You were the only one out there. Sorry."

"When the Heartless invade a world and there's no one to fight back in time, the world's heart is taken over by them and the entire world is destroyed." Aerith explained. "The people who didn't loose their hearts simply disappear. Some of them end up here and others… we don't know where they go."

"What are the Heartless?" Kairi asked. "They look so… odd."

"The Heartless are just as their names suggest; beings without hearts. And because they have no hearts of their own, they go around and steal the hearts of people. For every heart stolen, a heartless is born." Aerith told them. "That's why you have to be very careful with them. One wrong move and you're done for."

"Thankfully most of them are pretty easy to beat!" Yuffie said. "The Shadow Heartless are the most common around here. Them and the Soldiers."

"But what about Riku?" Sora asked. "He was right there with me!"

"Well, he could either be around here somewhere," Yuffie said unsurely. "Or he could be in a different world."

Sora looked at Yuffie hopefully. "Really?"

"Why not?" Yuffie still looked unsure, but she didn't want to say anything to upset the brunet. "Hey, I'll go ask Leon and Cid if they've seen him! Be back in a bit!" She waved cheerfully and then ran out the door.

"Why don't you two have a seat while I go make some tea." Aerith offered. "There are two seats right over there." She pointed across the room to the two green plush chairs sitting side-by-side. In front of the chairs was a glass table with a pile of coasters sitting in the middle of the table.

Before Aerith could go make the tea and before Kairi and Sora could go sit down, a force shook the building much like an earthquake would. Sora would have fallen over if it weren't for Kairi grabbing his arm to help him steady himself.

The shaking lasted ten seconds, which worried the three just as much as the screams heard from outside.

"Sora! Kairi! Stay here!" Aerith ordered the two. "I'm going to go help out."

"But-!" Sora didn't have a chance to finish his sentence as Aerith ran out of the building without another word. Right after she left, another rumble shook the whole building and Sora and Kairi looked in worry at the shelves stocked with accessories. Thankfully, nothing fell as a result of the tremor.

"Kairi, right?" Sora asked without looking at the redhead.

"Uh huh." Kairi nodded.

"I don't know anything about this place, but it seems like Yuffie and Aerith do. And if something happens to them because of whatever they're fighting, then we won't have the slightest idea of what to do." Sora said. He looked up and his determined blue eyes met Kairi's worried violet ones. "I'm going to help them!" There was a flash and a small '_ching' _noise as Sora's keyblade appeared in his hand. He headed for the door, walking right past Kairi.

"Wait!" Kairi yelled out. She turned around to face him and found him with his hand on the doorknob, ready to go outside and fight. "I-" She took a deep breath. "I'm going with you."

Sora looked a little relieved by the news and gave Kairi a small smile. "Great."

Kairi watched him run out the door and then tried to summon her own keyblade. She stared down at her hand. "C'mon, c'mon." She gave a small growl when nothing happened. "Work, will you!" She yelled. A light glow covered her hands and she smiled. "That's better." The light waned. "No! No!" The light grew bigger and formed into the shape of her keyblade before solidifying into the flowery weapon. Kairi gripped it tightly and then ran outside to help Sora and the others.

Outside she was met by Shadow Heartless and Soldier Heartless by the dozens. Up ahead she spotted Sora fighting through his own field of the dark creatures. Kairi gripped her keyblade tightly and began swinging at the Heartless, killing some and knocking others back. She slowly fought her way to Sora's side and the two fought back to back for a while.

"How did they get here!?" Kairi shouted over the noise of people yelling and weapons clanging together.

"What?" Sora yelled back.

"Yuffie told me that something prevents the Heartless from entering First District-- and that's where we are now!" Kairi yelled back. She swung at a few Shadow's to her right, knocking them back. A few seconds later they sprang forward to attack again, but that time Kairi was able to slash through them.

"I don't know anything about them coming in here," Sora grunted as he slashed through a Soldier and then blocked two Shadows from jumping on him. "Although I wish I knew where they all came from! There's no end to these things!" He ran his keyblade clean through the two Heartless and then whirled around to attack more coming at him from a different side.

"Watch out below!" Yuffie's voice filtered through the area before a large wooden shuriken flew down from the rooftops and cut through several Heartless in one sweep. Yuffie hopped down near Sora and Kairi and caught the weapon before throwing it again. "Aerith said she told you two to stay inside." The ninja girl remarked, as she kicked away a Shadow. "Personally, I'm glad you're out here since something of Cid's probably would have fallen on your head if you guys stayed in there. And trust me when I say that Cid's stuff falling on your head hurts. Badly." She caught her weapon and slashed at the Heartless near her before throwing it again. "I'd stand back, if I were you two. I'm about to do my super cool awesome finishing combo move!"

Sora and Kairi both swung at a few Heartless near them so they could get out of Yuffie's way. Her weapon _was _awfully pointy.

"HYYY-YAAAA!!!" Yuffie threw her weapon as hard as she could and while it slashed through the Heartless she ran forward and threw a bunch of miniature shuriken into the crowd of the creatures. All the while she was kicking and punching the Shadow's and Soldier's. She leaped into the air and caught her large weapon and then landed easily on the ground. Then she threw it one last time and it spun around in a large circle, taking out the remaining Heartless. "And that's how it's done!" She grinned triumphantly and turned to face Sora and Kairi. Her triumphant look faded away when she saw something behind Sora. "Sora, look out!"

Sora didn't even have time to turn around before something collided with the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Shiro: (laughs) I officially love writing Yuffie's character. I really, really do. I find her very easy to write, while I have a little more difficulty with Sora and Kairi. And I don't want to get started on my fighting scenes. It used to be that I refused to write them at all because they were so horrible, but since there's going to be fighting in this story I need to practice and work out things now before I get to the big battles. (sighs) Well, you can't say I'm not trying. 

NEXT: _Chapter 4: The White Witch_


	4. Chapter 4: The White Witch

_**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Disney characters. They belong to Square Enix and Disney respectively.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 4: The White Witch_

"…ra? Sora, are you alright?"

Sora slowly blinked open his eyes, his vision hazy. It soon adjusted and Sora could see Kairi looking worriedly down at him. "Kairi?" He asked. As he sat up, Kairi sat back in her chair so they wouldn't bump heads. "What happened?"

"Well, Yuffie missed a Heartless and it snuck up behind you…" Kairi trailed off, figuring Sora could fill in the rest for himself. That and Yuffie walked into the room with a scowl on her face muttering something along the lines of, "Stupid Heartless."

Sora rubbed the back of his head and winced a little when pain rushed across the back of his skull like wildfire. "Ow." He muttered.

"Oh!" Kairi softly exclaimed before reaching into her pocket. Sora watched in half interest as she took out a small vile and uncorked it. "Here." The redhead held the small bottle out to Sora. "Aerith made it for you. She said it'll work wonders on any injury you have. She gave me some too."

Sora took the small bottle and looked at it curiously before he looked up at Kairi. "So… what do I do with it?"

"You drink it." Yuffie said from her spot across the room where she scribbled furiously on a pad of paper. "Damn it, Squall! One of these days I'm going to wring your neck!" She muttered to herself as she continued scribbling.

Sora ignored the raven-haired girl's ranting and downed the contents of the bottle in one gulp. Kairi giggled at the sour look on his face when he registered the taste of the liquid. Sora coughed and glared at the bottle. "What was that?!"

"Aerith's potion from hell." Yuffie responded, finally done with her scribbling. She left the pad of paper on the table, along with the pencil she was writing with. "None of us know what she uses and really, none of us want to know. It works and that's what matters." She crossed her arms over her chest and turned so she was fully facing Kairi and Sora. "Leon wants to you take something to the wizard, Merlin, who lives out in Third District."

"A wizard?" Sora asked, looking a little excited. "So he does magic and stuff?"

Yuffie nodded. "Well duh, what else would he do?"

"Cool!" Sora jumped up out of bed, too excited by the prospect of meeting a real-life wizard to care about the fact that just a few minutes ago he was unconscious. "When do we go?"

"As soon as Aerith says you're fine to go, I guess." Yuffie said with a shrug. "Why?"

Sora didn't answer, as he was too busy running out of the room to find Aerith.

"Energetic, isn't he." Yuffie commented to Kairi with a heavy sigh. "Come on, lets go get him before he gets himself into trouble."

Kairi got up from her chair and followed Yuffie from the room. In the main part of the shop the amusing scene of Sora trying to convince Aerith that he was well enough to go on an errand for Leon greeted them. The two stood back for a minute or two to watch and then Kairi went to Sora's rescue.

"Aerith, Sora took the potion you wanted me to give him." She said, jumping in during the middle of one of Sora's sentences. "And with the way he's running around, he seems to be just fine."

Sora eagerly nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I'm totally fine now! Can we go, please? Pretty please?" His bottom lip trembled and his blue eyes turned an even bluer shade as they grew larger and watery.

Aerith's resolve crumbled at the sight of Sora's puppy-eyes and she gave in with a sigh. "All right, you two can go. But-" She held up a finger to silence Sora before he could let out a loud cheer. "You have to be very careful! And I want you both to take some supplies with you so that when you run into Heartless and you get hurt you'll be able to heal yourself." She pointed to a pack set that she had set on the table earlier when Leon left his message. "Leon is outside, so go find him for directions."

Sora bounded out the door, making everyone still in the shop wonder where he got all the energy. Aerith covered her mouth with a hand and giggled while Kairi retrieved the pack and ran after Sora after she strapped it to her waist. Outside she found a harassed looking Leon trying to talk to Sora without having to repeat himself. He looked most relieved when he saw Kairi hurrying over to them.

"I need you to take this book to Merlin. He's a wizard who lives out in Third District." Leon explained to them. "Just go through that door," He points to a large wooden door with a giant '3' hanging over it. "and keep to the leftuntil you see a red metal door with flames engraved into it. There should be a lock nearby, so use your keyblades to unlock it. And be careful, Third District is full of Heartless." He warned as he handed the large book to Kairi, not really trusting Sora with it.

Kairi nodded. "Alright. We'll be careful, right Sora?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Completely careful." He turned to look at the door. "So… are we ready to go?"

"It's now or never." Kairi replied. "Why put it off?" She took a step toward the door, her violet eyes worried. "And maybe… maybe the sooner we go through there, the less scared we'll be. If we just sit around and worry about what might happen as we go through Third, we'll never make it."

Sora smiled at Kairi. "Yeah, you're right." He stepped forward and took Kairi's hand. "Lets go together."

Together the two pushed open the door to Third District and stepped through. Once the two were on the other side the door closed on it's own. Sora and Kairi continued walking, hand in hand, keeping an eye out for Heartless. Kairi nervously clutched her keyblade as they walked and her eyes darted around at the slightest sign of movement. Sora kept walking forward, not as concerned as Kairi was about the Heartless.

Movement from above caught Kairi's eye and she looked up to see a bunch of Shadow's crawling around on the buildings. She gulped and moved closer to Sora.

Sora glanced over at the redhead and his eyes widened. "Kairi, you're glowing."

Kairi looked up at him, confused. "What?"

"Your keyblade, it's glowing." Sora enlightened. "And it looks like it's keeping the Heartless away."

Kairi looked down at her keyblade, which was glowing just like Sora said and then up to the Heartless keeping a safe distance away from both of them. The two hurried safely through 3rd District until they came to a pair of large metal doors that had strange red markings all over them.

"So, uh…" Sora scratched the back of his head as he looked at the doors, confusion written all over his face. "How do we get these open again? There's no handles or doorknobs or anything."

Kairi sighed and stepped closer to the door to get a better look at the markings. She adjusted her glasses as she looked over them and then she took a step back when she saw a keyhole. "Sora, try using your keyblade on that." She pointed to the keyhole.

Sora nodded. "Okay." He quickly summoned his keyblade and pointed it at the keyhole. A beam of light shot out at it and they heard a click before the doors ground open. Sora cheered and then ran through the door only to fall into a deep water puddle a few feet into the tunnel. Kairi laughed softly and then followed him into the tunnel, being careful not to fall into the water puddle.

After Kairi helped Sora out of the puddle, the two continued down the wet tunnel, unaware of what laid ahead.

* * *

Farther up the tunnel in a house in the middle of an underground pond a young girl in all white was busy turning off the alarms for the door. She got fed up with the noise when it wouldn't stop and she quickly cast a spell that destroyed the alarm. She breathed a sigh of relief and then brushed off her crisp white dress. 

"I'd better go find out who set the alarms off." She said to herself. "One of those Heartless may have gotten through and that means the rest won't be far behind." She picked up a black cloak that was laying across her messy desk and slipped it on as she hurried out the back door. Outside she walked quickly around the house to the front until she got to a row of large flat rocks resting in the water. She held out a hand and narrowed her blue eyes. "_Stopga_!" She yelled, waiting for the magic to take place before jumping quickly across the rocks. She landed on the other side and pulled up the hood of the cloak before she ducked into the shadows near the mouth of a tunnel leading to the cave. She stayed and listened for a moment to see if she could here the scuttling of the Heartless or splashes from them going through water. What she heard, however, was not what she was expecting.

"Kairi, are you sure we're going the right way?" A boy's voice echoed down the tunnel.

"Sora, there weren't any turns or separate tunnels." A girl patiently told him. "And we've followed Leon's directions exactly, so yes, I'm sure we're going the right way."

The girl wearing the cloak remained in the shadows more out of curiosity than anything else. She watched as Kairi and Sora walk past where she's hiding and then as Sora tried to jump onto the first rock, only for it to move so he fell into the water. She stifled laughter as she stepped out of her hiding place.

"The rocks move." She softly said, not wanting to startle them too badly. She laughed when Sora tumbled back into the water after trying to crawl up onto the bank.

"Are you Merlin?" Kairi asked her.

"Oh, goodness no!" The girl exclaimed softly. She pushed her hood back so Kairi and Sora could see her better. "My name is Naminé. I'm Merlin's apprentice."

"Merlin's… apprentice?" Kairi asked with a confused expression on her face. "But Leon didn't say anything about Merlin having an apprentice."

Naminé hesitated a moment. "Not many know of me here. After all," She laughed. "I'm just an apprentice. I'm not ready to go out into the world and help people. And I probably won't be for a while. Now," She smiled at the two. "I'm going to help you get across to Merlin's house. Just be sure not to trip, Sora."

She walked past the two, her light blue sandals clicking gently against the stone. "_Stopga_!" She shouted for the second time that day.

"How do you know my name?" Sora asked as he approached Naminé.

"I heard you and Kairi talking back there in the tunnel." Naminé explained. "Hurry across before the spell wears off. It doesn't last long." She stepped aside and let Sora go first before she and Kairi jumped across themselves.

On the other side Naminé led the two around the back to the true entrance to the house. "Master Merlin should be returning soon." She told the two. "He won't mind if you wait inside with me." She eyed Sora's wet clothes with a bemused expression. "Sora, would you mind if I dried your clothes? I cleaned up just yesterday and you're dripping all over the floor."

Sora sheepishly tugged at the sleeve of his wet jacket. "Er… yeah. Go ahead."

Naminé pushed back her sleeves and took a few steps away from Sora. "Kairi, you might want to move over. I'm not sure how powerful this will be." She waited until Kairi hurried out of the way and then drew energy to her hands for the spell. "_Wind_!" She pushed one hand forward, the palm pointed toward Sora.

Nothing happened.

Naminé sighed in frustration. "I guess I'm not ready for that one yet." She said disappointedly.

A noise like a firework going off blasted through the house, making all three teens jump in fright. They all turned to look around for the source of the noise and found it when a man in a blue robe and a long white beard came through the doorway with a bag he keeps with him at all times.

"Ah Naminé, just the witch I wanted to see!" Merlin exclaimed. "I have something for you, if I could just remember where-" A book floated out of the bag, followed by shrunken furniture which grew back to normal proportions as they settled about the room. "There it is." He grabbed the book and handed it to Naminé, who took it with some difficulty. "I believe that will prove very useful to your studies. Now go along."

Naminé thanked him and then hurried over to a set of stairs that led to a protected training area. That left Sora and Kairi alone with the aged wizard.

"Ah, the Keyblade Master and the Princess of Heart." Merlin said, adjusting his glasses to get a better look at the newcomers. "I never expected you to be quite so young, but I'll take what we can get."

"Sir, Leon asked us to give this book to you." Kairi spoke up, taking the leather bound book from her bag.

"Ah, most excellent!" Merlin accepted the book and ran a finger down the spine of it. "My! The binding is almost as good as new! Cid has gotten quite proficient at book restoration." He chuckled as if he had just told a funny joke. "Now, you are Sora and Kairi, correct?"

The two nodded.

"A friend asked me to teach you both the art of magic." Merlin told them. "He, as well as I, believe that it will be quite useful to you on your journeys. You've both done well with your keyblades with what little knowledge and skills you have, but without knowing what you're doing you won't be able to utilize the full power of your keyblades. Conscious control of the functions of the keyblade are instrumental to what you need to do. And mind that you never forget your dream."

Kairi and Sora exchange confused glances, not knowing what he meant with the last statement.

"Now come, you have things to learn. I invite you to sit." He gestured to a table that was complete with a tablecloth, plates, glasses, and a steaming tea kettle.

Over tea and a light snack, Merlin explained to Kairi and Sora the delicate nature of magic and then taught them some basic spells and made sure they could use them properly. By the end of their visit Sora was practically bouncing in joy and ready to go try out his spells somewhere else. Kairi was more reserved about using the magic since most of it had a destructive nature. That didn't go unnoticed by Merlin.

"Kairi, ask Aerith to teach you some healing spells." Merlin told her. "She's much more proficient at them than I am, though I hate to admit it. She is, after all, the healer here in Traverse Town."

Kairi smiled. "Thank you."

"Merlin, do you know where my friend Riku is?" Sora asked out of the blue. "None of the others have seen him here in Traverse Town and Leon suggested that I ask you and see if you know."

Merlin frowned thoughtfully. "No, I'm afraid I don't know. Now, you two can come by anytime and I'll try my best to help you out. And if you happen to come across the pages of this book, I'd appreciate it if you'd bring them to me. Together the pages of this book form an entire world and it'd be a waste to let it disappear." He smiled at the two. "Now shoo! I've another student to teach."

"Wait!" Naminé shouted as she ran down the stairs, nearly tripping and falling from going too fast. She stopped in front of Sora and Kairi, panting as she held out her hands. In her hands were four gems, each one the size of a ping pong ball. One was blue, another pink, another red, and the last one was green. "These are for you." She told them when she caught her breath. "There will be two other members of your group who will get the other two. You'll know when they join you."

Sora picked up the blue one and Kairi chose the pink before she picked up the other two and slipped them into her pack.

"What are they for?" Sora asked, bringing it up close to his eye as if seeing it up close would help him figure out what it was.

Naminé held her index finger up to her lips and winked. "That's a secret."

Sora made a face. He hated secrets, especially ones he couldn't know about. Kairi giggled at the expression on his face and then tucked her gem safely away into her pocket.

"Now, now, Naminé." Merlin said. "There's much work to be done!"

Naminé waved goodbye to Sora and Kairi and then followed Merlin up the stairs to the training room.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Shiro: Longest chapter to date! I wonder if I can keep writing this length. It's a nice length, yes? Ah, we'll see. And just so you know, I'm going to having fun with making up spells in this story. Of course, there will be the ones from the game that I use. (along with some from Final Fantasy, like _watega) _

Lets see... they'll be getting out of Traverse Town soon and off to a new world. But not before I introduce three more characters! And the gems? Oh, they do play a significant role. Just not until later. Much later.

I'm also going to put this one on a schedule. It'll be taking a backseat to 'It Must Be Destiny' and will be updated every other week.

NEXT- _Chapter 5: Flurry of Dancing Flame_s (Thursday, August 9)


	5. Chapter 5: Flurry of Dancing Flames

_**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Disney characters. They belong to Square Enix and Disney respectively.

_Warning_: Mild shonen ai in this chapter

And just a side **NOTE**: For this story Axel's about 2 years older than Sora and Kairi, which makes him 16. In other words, he's _a lot_ younger than he was in KH2. I should post the ages of the characters somewhere... hmm... Ooo! Profiles at the ends of chapters! (Y'know, kind of like in the game.)

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 5: Flurry of Dancing Flames_

Axel cautiously walked around the streets of Traverse Town, his green eyes darting around and keeping a sharp eye out for any Heartless. Black shoes thumped quietly on the ground the tops of which were half covered up by the bottom of his green pants. He wore two shirts; one was faded black and had long sleeves and the one over top of it was red and had the words "Fire Hazard" written across it in black.

He stopped walking and ran his hand through his spiky long red hair in frustration. "C'mon, Rox. Where are you?" He muttered, still looking around.

"_Axel?"_

Axel turned around, his eyes hopeful. "Roxas?" He asked, only to be disappointed when he saw no one and received no answer. His eyes dropped to the ground and he stuffed him hands into his pocket, his whole posture screaming, 'depression!'

"I guess… he's not here." Axel murmured to himself. "Heh. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy." He started walking again, too busy thinking back to his home and his friends to pay attention to where he was going.

* * *

_There was a small café in Twilight Town near where Axel lived and he and his friends would go there when they'd get a chance. Most of the time Axel's best friend, Roxas, would go there when he needed a break and Axel never passed up the opportunity to go see him._

"_Hey there, Foxy Roxy." Axel said as he sauntered over to the petite blonde. He slid onto the armchair that Roxas was sitting on and tried to wrap his arm around him._

"_Axel." Roxas glared at him and knocked his arm away. "Cut it out. And don't call me that!"_

_Axel pouted and then dramatically threw both arms around Roxas. "But I love you! How can you deny our love!"_

_Roxas groaned and dropped his head into his hands. He knew that there was no way to stop the obsessive redhead from getting his way and, although he would never admit it, he enjoyed the attention. "Axel." He said in an exasperated tone. "People are watching."_

_Axel didn't so much as move. "So? Let them look. I'm not ashamed."_

"_Of course not." Roxas muttered. "Could you at least let me move so I can drink my coffee?"_

_Axel loosened his grip a little and when Roxas leaned forward to pick up his drink, he slid down into the seat and pulled Roxas into his lap. "There!" He cheerfully exclaimed. "Isn't that better!"_

_Roxas growled in frustration._

"_Now, all we need are some snacks so I can feed you." Axel teasingly said. "Now where is that waitress…"_

"_Axel…" Roxas said warningly. "Don't you even dare."_

_Axel laughed and pulled Roxas a little closer so he could rest his head atop the spiky locks of blonde hair. "Okay."_

_Roxas didn't move away._

_

* * *

_

A small smile worked it's way across Axel's face at the memory, but just as quickly as it came it went away. _'That was the last time I saw him before…'_ He lifted his head up to look around and cursed when he saw that he was surrounded by Heartless. "Damn it!" He loudly cursed as he jerked his hands out of his pockets.

Flames wrapped around his hands and up to his wrists as he summoned his red and white chakrams to his hands. He effortlessly threw them at the Heartless while letting more and more fire build up so he could form a barrier of fire to protect himself. He smirked as the spikes on the chakrams ripped through the Heartless and then spun around to return to his hand. Each time they came back he wrapped new fire around the spikes.

"Back off!" He growled as he swung around and blasted fire at Heartless coming at him from behind. He slowly started backing up as he fought the Heartless, hoping to get to the door to First District before the Heartless could overwhelm him.

A new weapon, one quite similar to his chakrams, flew out of nowhere and took out a group of Heartless on his left. He didn't question the help and continued to fight even as someone dropped down from the roof and helped him out. It wasn't until all the Heartless were gone that he turned around to talk to the person who helped him.

"Thanks for your help." He said to the raven-haired girl.

"No problem!" The girl said cheerfully as she hooked her weapon onto her back. "The name's Yuffie! And you are?"

"I'm Axel. Got it memorized?"

Yuffie laughed. "You've got a sense of humor, I see. I like that. So, what are you doing out here in Second District? It's not exactly a place you want to go for a walk in. There are Heartless everywhere. But man, those are some cool weapons! What are they?"

"Chakrams." Axel told her. "I don't know where they came from though. I got here about two weeks ago and was attacked when they appeared. I knew how to use them just like that." He snapped his fingers. "And as for why I'm here…" His eyes dimmed as he remembered why he was wandering around. "I'm looking for a friend of mine. My best friend."

"You know, you're the second person I've met today who is looking for their best friend." Yuffie said. "And since I told him I'd keep a lookout, I'll do the same for you. What's he look like?"

Axel thought for a moment on the best way to describe Roxas. "He has spiky blonde hair. And it sticks up to one side, which makes it look like he just got out of bed." A small smile tugged at his lips. "And the most gorgeous sky blue eyes… they're a little cold though, and he usually looks like he's disinterested. And he always wears this fancy X shaped pendant thing."

Yuffie smiled. "Sounds like you really like him. Well, I haven't seen anyone around here who looks like that. Heck, I've only seen one person with spiky hair, but it's not blonde." She peered closely at Axel. "Say, you don't look so good. I've got an idea! How about you come with me and let my friend Aerith get some food in you!" She poked him in the side, making him jump. "You're thin as a stick! And Aerith says _I'm _skinny!" She huffed, half in anger and half in frustration, and then grabbed Axel's arm. "C'mon. I've got to at least get you an Ether or something. You had to have used a lot of energy throwing all that fire around."

Axel let himself be dragged along. "I don't feel tired." He lied, wanting to spend more time looking for Roxas.

Yuffie rolled her eyes and continued pulling him to the door. "Sure you don't." She said sarcastically.

Axel tried to pull his arm out of her grip, but found it useless and continued to allow her to pull him to First District. _'A quick break won't hurt. And Roxas wouldn't want me to tire myself out.'_ He told himself. _'And maybe I can ask around in First District again.' _His stomach growled and he looked anywhere but at Yuffie, hoping she didn't hear it.

"Sounds like someone is hungry." Yuffie remarked, her voice teasing. "I bet Aerith can whip you up something real quick. And if she's busy then I can do it instead!" She pumped a fist into the air. "Yeah! I can cook you up something really nice!"

Axel gulped, not sure if allowing the energetic girl dragging him along to cook would be such a good idea. It didn't seem like she had a very long attention span.

* * *

Some time later Axel found himself leaving the Accessory Shop with Yuffie skipping by his side. Thankfully, he didn't have to suffer through her cooking and got to try Aerith's cooking. Unfortunately for him, with Aerith there he got several of her strange concoctions shoved down his throat after she decided that he didn't look well enough to be walking around on his own. 

"I had better not have been poisoned by that." Axel muttered to himself.

"Don't worry. We've been force fed her stuff a lot and we're still here." Yuffie tried to assure him. "Her stuff really does help, you know. She just hasn't found a way to make it taste good and still work well."

"Why couldn't I have just used a Potion or Ether or something?" Axel asked crossly. "At least those don't taste bitter or of sour milk."

Yuffie laughed. "They don't taste that bad. And Aerith doesn't really trust Potions or Ethers. She said something about them being bad once or something about not knowing what's in them and ever since then the moment one of us pulls out a Potion or anything she swoops in out of nowhere and dumps it out. It's the strangest thing, though. The grass she dumps it on turns this funny purple color and then changes to neon green."

A worried expression crossed Axel's face and he took a second or two to wonder exactly what goes into Potions before he decided that it would be better for his health if he didn't know.

"Yuffie!"

Yuffie looked around to see who it was calling her name and broke out into a smile when she saw who it was. "Sora! Kairi!" She yelled, waving an arm in the air. "Welcome back!"

Axel turned around to see who Yuffie was yelling to and his heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw the boy running toward. _'Roxas?' _He wondered briefly, before he took a good look at the boy. _'No. But they look a lot alike.' _The thought of Roxas having a brother briefly crossed his mind.

Sora and Kairi ran up to Yuffie and Axel and stopped a few feet away.

"Who's your friend, Yuffie?" Sora asked, noticing Axel right away. Not that anyone could, with his bright red hair and all. "I don't remember seeing him before."

"Oh!" Yuffie exclaimed. She had gotten into one of her little scatterbrained moments and had forgotten that Axel was standing right beside her. "Guys, this is Axel. He's looking for his best friend just like you are, Sora."

"Really?" Sora looked curiously at Axel while Kairi shyly hung back, not sure what to make of Axel. "You wouldn't have happened to come across anyone with silver hair, would you?"

Axel shook his head. "Sorry."

Sora looked a little disappointed. "Oh… no, that's okay. I'll just have to keep looking! I know I'll find him sooner or later. I'm Sora by the way." He held out a hand for Axel to shake.

"Axel. Got it memorized?" Axel said with a smirk as he shook Sora's hand. "And who's the lovely redhead beside you?" He asked.

Kairi narrowed her eyes. Something about Axel bugged her, but she couldn't quite place what it was. "I'm Kairi." She said, trying to push back her distrust.

"Soo…" Yuffie tried to break the tension that had settled over them. "How'd your trip to Merlin's go? Did you find your way okay? You gave him the book, right?"

Sora nodded energetically. "Yeah! And Merlin taught me a spell! You wanna see?" He asked.

Yuffie shook her head, holding back a laugh. "No, that's okay, Sora. I'm sure I'll see it in action later. Hey, was Naminé there? I haven't heard from her in forever. In fact, the last time I saw her was a year ago when she dropped by to say she was going home for a bit."

"You mean her world wasn't destroyed like everyone elses?" Axel interrupted.

Yuffie shook her head. "I don't really know. No one but her and Merlin really know where she came from and neither of them are saying anything."

"And she chooses to stay here?" Kairi asked, confused. If she had the choice she'd rather be at home with her family and friends, not in some strange place and unable to go home.

"Merlin's here." Yuffie said simply. "And I get the feeling that she doesn't really care for her home. She said something to me once about a prophecy and how it messed up her world…"

They all fell silent for a moment, most of them wondering about the mystery that was Naminé. Axel just wondered who it was they were talking about, before he remembered the girl in white he met when he first arrived.

"Hey Axel, do you want to join us?" Sora asked suddenly. "Me and Kairi are going to travel on a gummi ship to different worlds so I can look for Riku and to find a way for us all to go home."

"When'd you get a gummi ship?" Yuffie asked before Axel could say anything.

"We made two new friends in town!" Sora said, just as excitable as ever. "They're names are Donald and Goofy and-- Hey!" He turned to look for them so he could introduce them better. "Where'd they go?" He looked guiltily at Kairi and then they both turned to look at the door to Second District. Yuffie and Axel followed their gazes.

"Well… they did say for us to go on ahead." Kairi sheepishly said. "You don't think they were just saying that to be nice, do you?"

Sora started running for the doors, but before he got too far they opened and Donald and Goofy tumbled out and collapsed on the ground. Donald looked up and gave Sora a glare for leaving him and Goofy behind.

"Oops?" Sora offered them a half smile and then he and Kairi walked forward to help the two up.

"So when do we leave?" Axel asked. He'd already been all around Traverse Town looking for Roxas and hadn't found him. Sora's idea of looking for Riku picked at his brain until he decided it'd be a good idea to go look for Roxas in different worlds.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Donald asked crossly. "You aren't going!"

"Aww, come on, Donald." Sora said pleadingly. "He's looking for his friend too! You just gotta let him come along!"

Donald crossed his arms over his chest. "No!"

"Gawrsh, Donald. Maybe we should let him come with us." Goofy said. "It wouldn't hurt to have someone else along who can fight."

Donald let out a frustrated growl. "Fine. But I won't like it."

"Looks like you're coming along with us, uh…" Goofy paused, not knowing Axel's name.

"Axel."

Goofy nodded. "Nice to meet you, Axel. I'm Goofy and this here is Donald. We'd be honored to have you come along."

"Thanks."

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

And so ends Axel's chapter. Now there's only one member of their group left to introduce, but he won't come in until chapter 8. I absolutely adore Sora. He's one of those characters who can be friends with just about anyone, so I figure "Of course he'd be the one to invite Axel along". And as for Kairi's dislike for Axel... I really have no idea where that came from. Originally I was going to have the two get along with maybe a few sibling-ish fights. (like poking and teasing one another mercilessly) 

And time to begin the Profiles! (Donald and Goofy are the same as they are in the game, so you don't mind if I don't add them in, right? Later I might add little tidbits.)

**PROFILES**

_**Sora**_-

Hair color: brown

Hair style: spiky

Eye color: cerulean blue

Age: 14

Weapon: Keyblade (Kingdom Key)

One of the main heroes in the story, Sora is searching for his best friend, Riku. He's teamed up with Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Axel to go around to different worlds and to look for Riku and to find a way to go back to Destiny Island.

_**Kairi**_-

Hair color: dark red

Hair style: long; usually in a braid

Eye color: violet

Age: 14

Weapon: Keyblade (Heart Flower (note that the name has been made up on the spot. if anyone knows the real name of Kairi's keyblade, let me know)

The main heroine in the story, Kairi is looking for a way to go home to her family and friends. She's found a friend in Sora and gets along with Donald and Goofy, but doesn't seem to like Axel very much.

_**Axel**_-

Hair color: bright red

Hair style: spiky but long; sometimes pulls it back

Eye color: green

Age: 16

Weapon: chakrams and fire

Like Sora, he's searching for his best friend (Roxas) although unlike Sora, it's apparant that he likes his best friend as more than just a friend. He joins Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy on their journey to the next world.

**_Riku_**-

Hair color: silver-white

Hair style: short

Eye color: aquamarine

Age: 15

Weapon???

Sora's best friend. He's currently missing.

**_Roxas_**-

Hair color: blonde

Hair style: spiky (tends to spike up to one side)

Eye color: cerulean blue

Age: 14

Weapon???

Axel's best friend. He's also missing.

**MINOR**

_**Yuffie**_-

Always ready to go and fight or do something, Yuffie gets along with just about everyone. Some people are annoyed by the sheer amount of energy she has (like Leon, for example) but they can't help but admire her for staying happy in a time where there isn't much happiness around. She stays with Cid, Leon, and Aerith in Traverse Town.

_**Aerith**_-

The mother figure of the Traverse Town bunch, if she catches wind that someone isn't feeling their best she'll glide in and find a way to make them better. She may not look it, but she can be a dangerous foe. She spends her time working in her small garden outside the shop and working on her own Potions for her friends.

_**Cid**_-

The owner of the Accessory Shop and the one who got Yuffie, Aerith, and Leon out of Hollow Bastion when it was being overrun by Heartless.

_**Leon**_-

He spends his time patrolling Traverse Town to make sure everyone is safe or training underground Merlin's house. He's usually cool and collected and there's not much that can faze him. Not even Yuffie. Aerith is the only one who can unsettle him.

* * *

**_NEXT UPDATE_**: _(around) September 4_


	6. Chapter 6: Wonderland

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 6: Wonderland_

Axel yawned and boredly stared out one of the small round windows on the gummi ship. Sora sat up front pestering Donald and Goofy about when they'd get to the next world. Kairi wasn't sitting too far from Axel and was examining the pink gem that Naminé gave her.

"But we've been traveling for days!" Sora's frustrated yell floated out of the cockpit. "We've got to be getting close to the next world."

"You gotta be patient, Sora." Goofy told him. "The gummi ship is goin' as fast as we can get it to go."

"But-"

"No 'buts'!" Donald interrupted. "We'll be there soon."

"How about you go check on Kairi and Axel." Goofy suggested. "I don't think they get along all that well, so don't leave them alone together for too long."

Sora looked confused. "Really?" He asked. "I didn't notice that. Are you sure?"

"Gawrsh, Sora. I don't know. Maybe it was just me." Goofy said.

Sora smiled and stretched his arms up before resting his hands on the back of his head in his infamous pose. "I'm sure they're fine, but if you really want me to then I'll go check on them." He dropped his hands to hid side and walked back to join Axel and Kairi. Before the door shut behind him he heard Donald mutter something unintelligible and Goofy reprimand him quietly.

Axel and Kairi both looked up when Sora entered the room and it was for the first time that Sora noticed the tension between the two. _'I guess Goofy was right.'_ He thought.

"Did you find out anything?" Kairi asked as she slid the gem back into her pack.

Sora shook his head. "No, not really." He said, sitting down next to Kairi. "All I got out of Donald was 'soon'." He sighed. "I wish there was a way for us to get there faster. Then I'd have a better chance of finding Riku."

"And I'll be able to find Roxas sooner." Axel said in a soft tone. "And the sooner the better. He shouldn't be left alone for too long. It's not that he's weak or anything, he's just so stubborn that he gets himself into trouble without even trying."

"Axel?" Sora asked. "What's he like? The one you're looking for."

A soft smile spread across Axel's face. "He's my best friend, even if he always denies it. We met when we were little kids; back when he first came to Twilight Town. When he got into middle school he started breaking away from me, especially after I-" He paused for a second. "I started high school." He lamely supplied. He sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs. "I don't know what happened to him, but he started getting more and more quiet and snapped at everyone. I was one of the few who could get him to talk, but that was mostly because I was too stubborn to leave him alone. The last time I was him was when I dropped by this one café that he likes to go to."

"We'll find him, Axel." Sora promised. "I just know we will."

Axel chuckled. "You know, you're a lot like him. Being around you right now is almost like having him here with me."

"Strange, he doesn't sound a thing like Sora." Kairi remarked, ignoring the fact that she hasn't known Sora much longer than Axel has.

Axel brushed aside Kairi's coldness. "You'd understand if you knew Roxas."

Silence settled over the trio and remained that way until Goofy shouted back at them that they were nearing the next world. Sora rushed up to the front, hoping to get a glimpse of the world. Axel and Kairi followed, wanting to get a look as well.

Once up in the front, Kairi and Axel had to hold Sora back to keep him from pushing any buttons in his eagerness to get closer to the world. Once they got close enough to teleport off they let him go first and then quickly followed.

They ended up in a hallway unlike any they had ever seen before. Instead of the walls being straight they curved and twisted.

Axel appeared uneasy at the closed in space. His eyes darted around looking for a way out and his breathing became shallow. He started to fidget and move around while the others talked about what to do next. 'Keep cool, Axel.' He told himself. 'You can handle this. It's no big deal.'

"Axel?" Goofy asks, interrupting his thoughts. "You don't look so good. Are you alright?"

"Claustrophobic." Axel muttered. "I'll be fine."

"Lets go this way!" Sora exclaimed as he took off down the hall. "Come on, guys!"

Kairi sighed tiredly and then started jogging after him. Donald and Goofy soon followed, leaving Axel to shuffle along after them. He soon came to the room where the others were waiting and found himself able to breath more easily in the less closed in space.

"Bizarre, isn't it." Kairi remarked. "I wonder if the rest of this world is just as weird." She couldn't help but glance over at Axel and she frowned when she saw how tired he looked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Axel muttered, hating how his weakness has gotten worse since his world disappeared. "I've always gotten like this in enclosed spaces. It's a wonder I was fine on the gummi ship." He leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his drooping hair. "I'm claustrophobic. Got it memorized?"

A frown tugged at Kairi's lips and she looked away from Axel and walked over to Sora, who was looking around the room in awe.

While the others looked around just to see what's in the room, Axel looked for a way out.

A wave of dizziness slammed into him suddenly and made his knees buckle. He quickly sat down on the bed, only to jump up when the bed moved back a foot or two.

The others turned to look at Axel and he held up his hands defensively. "I didn't mean to!" He exclaimed. "I just sat down and it moved!"

"It looks like there's something' behind it." Goofy commented.

Axel turned around to look and see if he could find what Goofy was talking about. His green eyes landed on a square hole behind the headboard and he swiftly pushed the bed all the way back into the wall.

The others crowded around to look at the hole in the wall.

"Lets go through it!" Sora excitedly said, ready for an adventure.

"It looks kind of small, don'tcha think?" Goofy asked. "Maybe we should look for a different way."

Sora looked disappointed. "But what other way is there? The doorknob's asleep and won't let us though. And maybe this one was hidden because it is the right way."

"Or maybe it's hidden for a different reason." Kairi said, trying to dissuade Sora from crawling through the small tunnel. "Maybe it's dangerous."

"But Kairi," Sora whined. "I want to know where it goes! Don't you?"

"Well, yes." Kairi said hesitantly. "But we still shouldn't go crawling through a tunnel we know nothing about. And besides, I don't think any of us could fit through that. It's too small." She logically said.

"Then maybe we just need to get smaller." Sora suggested, looking around the room once more. "Magic is real, so why can't something that makes you shrink be real?" His eyes landed on two different colored cans on the table and before anyone could stop him he ran over to the table and picked one up. "Maybe this is it!"

Kairi started. "Sora, I don't think--"

Sora took a sip from the can before Kairi could finish her warning and he cried out in surprise when he began to rapidly shrink.

"See, this is what happens when you act without thinking." Kairi chastised.

"Kairi, not so loud!" Sora yelled, his voice sounding high-pitched and squeaky, as well as far away.

"Oh, sorry." Kairi dropped her voice to a whisper. "Do you think we can go through the tunnel if we're all that small?"

"Kairi, I'm six inches tall." Sora said. "I can fit through just about anything."

Kairi regarded the can for a moment and then picked it up and took a sip. She quickly set it down, feeling the affects of it take place.

"I thought we weren't going to drink it." Axel crossly remarked, wanting nothing more than to get out of the suffocating room.

"It's going to help us get through the tunnel!" Kairi yelled, her voice high-pitched and squeaky just like Sora's. "And we haven't sprouted horns or anything, so it should be fine!"

"Axel, it might help if you drink it." Sora said, worried about his other red-haired friend. "Maybe the room won't feel so small then. And that tunnel might lead outside.

Axel considered that for a moment while Goofy and Donald both took a sip of the shrinking solution. Then he gave in and took a sip as well. Together the five walked over to the tunnel and looked for a light at the end. Finding none, they asked Axel for some fire to use as their guiding light. Axel led the way, his hands alight.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Sora asks. At Axel's questioning look he pointed at the fire.

Axel shook his head. "It doesn't hurt at all. Sometime's there's a tingling feeling, but it never hurts."

"Oh."

The five lapsed back into silence. Their footsteps echoed on the hard floor for a while but it soon gave way to grass and they knew they were getting near the end. A dim light appeared at the end of the tunnel but Axel kept the fire burning until they actually got out of the tunnel and into what appeared to be a garden of sorts.

"Hey, it looks like there's someone in a cage up there!" Goofy shouted, pointing ahead through a gap in the bushes.

The others rushed over to see what Goofy was pointing at and Kairi gasped when she saw the young blonde girl trapped in the cage.

"Kairi, is something wrong?" Sora asked.

"I- I know her. I mean, I've never seen her before, but somehow I know her." Kairi said, her voice laced with confusion. "I think her name is Alice."

Sora looked determinedly into the cleared area. "We've got to help her!"

"No!" Donald squawked. "We can't interfere!"

Goofy nodded. "Sorry, Sora. We can't interfere with other worlds unless it deals with Heartless. We've got to protect the world border!"

"That's order!" Donald corrected.

"Unlike you, I can't just sit here and let someone be caged." Sora snapped at Donald.

"Then lets stop talking and act." Axel said. "We should at least find out what's going on. It could have something to do with the Heartless."

Without waiting for the others, Axel marched out into the courtyard. He was quickly followed by Sora and Kairi while Donald and Goofy brought up the rear.

"How dare you intrude in my courtroom!" The Queen shouted from atop her pedestal. "Off with their heads!"

"Wait!" Sora yelled. "We didn't mean to intrude. We were just curious about what's going on."

"Please!" Alice shouted from the cage. "You've got to help me! I'm innocent, I tell you!"

"Be quiet, you!" The Queen roared.

The Rabbit cleared his throat. "The accused has been convicted of attempted theft of the Queen's heart."

Sora and Kairi exchanged glances.

"Sounds like a Heartless to me." Axel murmured. "Sora, request permission to search for clues so we can prove Alice's innocence."

Sora quickly did so and after the Queen yelled for a while longer they were directed to a different opening in the bushes that led to the forest.

"Maybe we should split up." Kairi suggested as they looked around the bizarre forest. "This place looks really big."

"Sora can come with us." Goofy said. "Our King did instruct us to stay with the key."

"But Kairi has a keyblade too." Sora reminded them.

Kairi forced a smile on her face. "That's okay, Sora. I'll be fine with Axel."

Sora looked about ready to protest, but Axel beat him to it.

"Go on with Donald and Goofy." The other redhead said. "Kairi and I will be fine. We've got each other's backs."

Finally convinced, Sora followed Donald and Goofy to one part of the forest while Axel and Kairi took the other half. The two redheads walked in silence for a while, surprised by the lack of noise and the lack of Heartless.

"You know, you could have gone with them." Axel remarked. "I could have handled things on my own."

Kairi snorts. "I doubt that." She says brassily. "No matter how good you think you are, you should always have someone else with you when facing Heartless. Besides," She scowls. "Those two don't respect me as a keyblade wielder. At least you do."

Before the two went around a bend, Axel stopped in his tracks and threw out an arm to stop Kairi, accidentally hitting her in the chest. He whispered a hurried 'sorry' before pointing ahead to a familiar black shape.

"A Heartless!" Kairi whispered. Already she felt the familiar tingle in her right hand that always came right before her keyblade was summoned.

"Know any magic yet?" Axel asked her.

Kairi shook her head. "None offensive. I can do a minor shield charm, a weak water spell, and a few low-level healing spells though. I'm still working on my Light Flare spell."

"Perfect." Axel grumbled sarcastically. "Maybe you should just let me handle this."

"No way!" Kairi hissed angrily. "I can fight just as well as you can. Don't you dare try to leave me out of this!"

"_Fine_." Axel hissed back before walking out into the clearing.

Immediately the attention of the Heartless' went from wandering around to charging in for an attack. Axel quickly summoned his Chakrams in a blaze of fire and took out the ones nearest him. Kairi quickly summoned her keyblade and charged in, slicing away at the Heartless. While Axel didn't pay any great attention to them, Kairi watched carefully as the swarm fluctuated in size with each blow she and Axel dealt to them.

"There's got to be a way to stop them from coming!" Axel shouted. "What does that Light Flare thing you're working on do?"

"It wards them off." Kairi said. "But I told you, I'm not able to do that yet! It takes a lot of energy and it could completely backfire!"

"You've got to try sometime!" Axel roared as his lit one Chakram on fire and threw it into a crowd of Heartless. Like a boomerang, it returned to his hand, cutting through more Heartless on its return path. "I'll watch your back!"

"Fine!" Kairi yelled. "But if we die here, I swear I'll follow you around in the afterlife and make you miserable!"

"Just use the damn spell!" Axel yelled, blasting fire at a pair of Heartless.

Kairi hissed something under her breath as she knocked a few Heartless away from herself. Then she spun her keyblade around in a circle, gathering all her energy for the spell. "LIGHT FLARE!" She shouted. The flowers on her keyblade began to glow, dimly at first, and then blazed brightly with a pure white light.

The Heartless reacted to the light by quickly fleeing the area.

Slowly the light dimmed back to a dull glow and Kairi sank to her knees, exhausted. Axel let his Chakrams ignite and fade away before he rushed over to Kairi to help her up.

"See." He said. "You tried and it worked."

Kairi looks up at Axel with confusion lurking in her violet eyes. "I don't understand. I haven't been all that nice to you and yet you still help me. Why?" She asked.

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Why?" He repeated. "I think it's me who should be asking that. You never even trusted me from the beginning and I haven't even done anything to you."

"You also haven't done anything to gain my trust." Kairi said defensively. She pulled away from Axel to stand on her own.

"And Sora has?" Axel argued. "You haven't known him much longer than you've known me and yet you seem to trust him completely."

Kairi found herself lost for words and looked away from Axel. She gripped her keyblade tightly and for a moment the glow increased.

Axel easily masked his face to betray nothing of what he thought or felt. With a barely concealed sigh of displeasure, he walked past Kairi back in the direction they came from.

"There's nothing down here. Lets go meet up with the others." He said.

Still looking at the ground, Kairi released her keyblade, letting it fade away to wherever it is that keyblades went when not in use. She looked up as she was turning around to follow Axel, but stopped when she saw something on the ground. She ran over to it and carefully picked it up, somewhat surprised to find that it was two sheets of paper.

"Axel…!" Kairi called as she turned around. She fell silent when she didn't see her fellow redhead anywhere nearby. She frowned and looked down at the papers. The first appeared to be a part of a story and she assumed it was from the book at Merlin's. The second paper was heavily coded and she couldn't make heads or tails of it.

She put both papers in her bag and then ran in the direction Axel went, hoping that she wouldn't run into any Heartless along the way.

* * *

"_Burn baby! Burn!" _Axel cackled as he mercilessly sent plumes of fire at the card sentries that the Queen sent out to attack them. The others may have been having a rough time with the cards, but he was having a field day. Chakrams and fire were perfect tools for fighting cards.

"Watera!" Kairi shouted, sending a spray of water at one of the cards that Axel was getting ready to torch.

"Kairi, I can't burn the damn cards when you soak them!" Axel yelled in frustration.

"And nobody can get close enough to the flaming cards that keep walking!" Kairi yelled as she ripped her keyblade through one of the cards like it was, well, paper.

"Kairi!" Sora yelled. "Get Alice down!"

Kairi took down one final card before she ran over to the covered cage Alice was being kept in and pulled back on the level so the cage would lower to the ground. Once it reached the ground she jerked back the sheet and gasped when she found Alice gone.

"Guys! She's gone!" She yelled after turning around.

"WHAT!!!" The Queen roared angrily. "Guards! Find the prisoner! I WANT HER HEAD!"

Kairi quickly rejoined Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Axel in case the cards would try to go after her. Instead the card sentries rushed past all of them and into the forest in search of Alice.

"Maybe we should leave." Sora suggested.

"Good idea." Donald said.

They quickly fled back into the tunnel before the Queen remembered that they were there. Once back in the Bizarre Room they climbed up onto the table and drank from the other bottle to get back to their normal size.

"Now what?" Kairi asked.

Sora shrugged. "I guess we go on to the next world."

"But what about Alice? We've got to help her!" Kairi exclaimed. "We can't just leave!"

"Something tells me that she isn't here anymore." Sora said quietly.

"We haven to find the King!" Donald said, stowing away his wand. "We don't have time to go back traipsing through the world. And we have to preserve--"

"The world order, we know." Axel interrupted, sounding bored. "Lets just go already."

They began walking toward the exit, but something made Sora stop. That something was his keyblade developing a mind of its own and summoning himself.

Sora took it by the handle as it directed itself toward the snoozing doorknob. The world seemed to fade away to Sora and he found himself in a world of smoky pastel colors. A beam of light collected on the tip of his keyblade and a breeze kicked up, ruffling his spiky hair. He could feel the energy building around him and within him as a crown of light traced itself beneath his feet. Instinctively, he jumped back and twirled the keyblade around before realigning it with the doorknob and releasing the built-up energy in a single beam of light. He heard a click before the real-world appeared around him once again.

Sora turned around to face his companions. "What was that?" He asked.

* * *

"What was what?" Axel asked. "All I saw was you acting all weird and pointing your keyblade at the stupid doorknob."

Sora looked, if possible, even more confused. "What? But there was this light and a clicking noise… are you sure you didn't hear it?"

"Maybe you should get some sleep, Sora." Goofy suggested. "You've been so excited that you haven't gotten much."

"No." Kairi shook her head. "I heard it. And I think I caught a glimpse of what you're talking about, Sora. It's like you locked a door with your keyblade or something."

"Exactly!" Sora exclaimed, relieved that someone heard it.

"Okay, so you're both crazy." Axel said. "Can we get out of here?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. And maybe we'll find Riku or Roxas or the King in the next world."

"Here's to hoping." Axel said.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Well, with It Must Be Destiny finished I finally have time to work on this. Unfortunently, it will be put on hold in November thanks to NaNoWriMo. If you have no idea what that is then you can easily look it up. Just type in NaNoWriMo into a search bar (like google).

I think my favorite thing about this chapter is the arguments between Axel and Kairi. The arguments are almost as much fun to write as AkuRoku arguments! (Note I said _almost_)

And somehow Axel tends to end up being claustrophobic in my stories. If anyone is wondering why, then it's because my thinking goes something like this: Axel is a fire user. Fire doesn't like closed in spaces. Fire dies without enough oxygen. Therefore, put Axel in a small space or take away too much oxygen and he's not at all happy. Same goes for wet or underground places.

The next chapter should be more fun.

NEXT: _Chapter 7: Olympus Coliseum_


	7. Chapter 7: Olympus Coliseum

_**Disclaimer**_: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

0-0-0

Chapter 7: Olympus Coliseum

In three days time they found themselves standing in a brand new world admiring the tall, sand-colored building and embracing the warm sun beating down on them. Axel rolled up his sleeves and stretched, much like a cat would after a long nap. Kairi considered taking off her hoodie so she could actually feel the sun on her skin, but decided against it for the moment. Sora looked gleefully around, excited by the prospect of getting to explore a new world. Donald and Goofy looked around as well, wondering what dangers the new world held.

"What do you guys think this new world will be like?" Sora asked.

"It's very Greek." Kairi remarked. "The pillars and buildings are in that style."

"They could be Roman." Axel argued, lazily waving his hands at the pillars.

"The Roman pillars are usually depicted as being white." Kairi argued back. "These pillars _aren't _white."

"So? This is a completely different world than the one you're used to." Axel reminded her. "Whether white or tan, they could just as easily be Roman."

"Gawrsh you guys. I don't think it really matters." Goofy said in a pacifying manner

"Goofy's right." Sora said. "Lets just go look around and make sure there aren't any Heartless. And who knows. The King or Riku or Roxas could be here!" He started walking toward the tall double doors.

Axel and Kairi ended their argument in favor of following Sora to make sure he wouldn't get into too much trouble, even though Donald and Goofy were there with him. The five walked through the double doors and into a room lit by two fires. Standing on a pedestal against a wall is a half-man, half-goat creature.

"Uh, hello?" Sora tried to get the guy's attention.

"You're back? Great. Kid, move that stone over there for me, will ya?" The guy gestured to a large, square block that was in front of one of the fires.

Sora looks to the others and then shrugged before he walked over and tried to push the stone away from where it rested. He tried several times to move it before he gave up.

"You weakling." Axel said in a teasing tone. "Let a pro show you how it's done." He pushed his sleeves up more, revealing muscles, to everyone's surprise. He poked Sora out of the way and tried to push the stone.

He failed as well and Sora laughed and teased him about it. Kairi watched the two and couldn't help but notice how well the two got along and how comfortable they were around one another. Before she could ponder on it more, the goat man turned around.

"Herc, what's taking so-- Who are you people?" He demanded upon seeing who it was in the room with him.

"I'm Sora. He's Donald, he's Goofy, and he's Axel. And she's Kairi." Sora said, gesturing to each of his companions as he gave their name.

"I'm Phil. Now beat it, kids. I've got work to do getting ready for the tournament."

"I'm not a kid! I can take any challenge you throw at me!" Sora protested.

Phil scoffed. "You're kidding. You think a kid like you is hero material? Give me a break! You probably can't even fight!"

"I can so fight!" Sora yelled, annoyed by Phil. "All of us can! And I bet we're better than you!"

"Kid, there ain't nobody better than me." Phil boasted.

"Oh, really." Sora said with a smirk. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Prove it." He challenged.

Phil backed down a little. He hadn't expected Sora to challenge him like that. Thinking quickly, he came up with an idea. "Pssh! I don't have time for pip squeaks like you. I have real heroes to train. Come back in a few years maybe."

"We are real heroes!" Donald protested.

Goofy nodded. "Yeah. Sora's the wielder of the key--"

"Goofy!" Donald cut off Goofy's sentence and glared at his friend.

Goofy covered his mouth with his hands. "Oops. Sorry, Donald. I forgot."

"No matter." Phil said, unimpressed. "None of you guys are hero material. Now if you'll excuse me…" He turned back around to examine the sign he put up.

"We're hero material and we'll prove it!" Sora said determinedly. "Just give us a chance!"

Phil turned around with a heavy sigh. "Fine, I'll give you a chance. Just don't come crying to me when you fail."

Sora cheered and Donald, Goofy, and Axel joined in, which made Kairi laugh. Phil remained unimpressed with their cheer and led them into the coliseum, grumbling about it the entire time.

Down in the coliseum they were greeted by the sight of numerous barrels, some of which were piled on top of each other or located on top of a pillar.

"Wow…" Sora murmured in amazement. "This is so cool! I wish Riku was here to see this. He'd probably start some contest with me to see who could bust all the barrels first."

Axel grinned and cracked his knuckles, an action that made Kairi wince and add something else to her mental list of things that Axel did that annoyed her.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Axel said, pleased by the challenge. "Hey, goat-man, is there a time limit?"

"My name is Phil!" Said goat-man yelled. "Remember it."

Axel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I got it memorized."

"Good." Phil said. "Now keep it memorized. You, key-boy, you're first! You've got thirty seconds!"

"What? Thirty seconds? You've got to be--"

"Starting now." Phil interrupted Sora before he clicked his stopwatch.

Sora quickly took off running for the barrels, summoning his keyblade as he did so. He sliced through the first barrel with ease, but by the time he got through the last barrel, twenty-nine seconds later, he was exhausted.

"That… was easier… than… I thought." Sora panted, trying to catch his breath. "I think I'm just… going… to sit down now." He said before he sat down roughly in the sand.

"Sora, you're pathetic." Axel said. "Let me show you how a real pro does it."

Sora snorted. "Alright, Mr. Big-shot-who-couldn't-move-a-rock." He said, blatantly ignoring the fact that he couldn't move it either. "Show us commoners how it's done."

"Gladly." Axel said, summoning his Chakrams. "Goat-man, set up the barrels, will you."

"It's Phil!" He yelled, already trying to get the barrels in place.

Axel ignored him and decided to amuse himself by juggling his Chakrams. Sora laughed and made jokes about one of them falling and splitting open Axel's head, to which Axel threatened to let one "slip" in his direction.

Soon enough, the barrels were set back up, only to be soon knocked over as the fiery blur known as Axel had a field day and destroyed them all in twenty-six seconds. Sora laughed and called him a cheater, which resulted in a small scuffle while Phil set up the barrels for the next person.

Not one to be shown up by the boys, Kairi began to prepare for her own timed barrel destruction run. She ignored Axel and Sora and pulled off her gray hoodie, revealing her form-fitting white shirt that was underneath. She held out the hoodie and asked Goofy to hold onto it for her and gave him a rare smile when he agreed. Then she stretched out her muscles and summoned her keyblade and was finally ready to take on the barrels.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Phil exclaimed when he saw it was Kairi who was up next. "I don't train girls."

"Too bad." Kairi said coolly. "I can fight just as well as the guys can. I won't not do this just because you think I'm a weak little girl. Now start the timer so I can go."

Phil sighed. "If you say so. Thirty seconds. Ready, go!"

Kairi sprinted off at the barrels, her eyes glued to the first set. She drew back the keyblade in preparation and swung it as hard as she could at the first barrel. It shattered into hundreds of pieces and she continued on. By the time she reached the second to last barrel her muscles ached from the force needed to shatter the barrels. She drew up her strength and used as much as she dared to destroy the barrel.

"Twenty-five seconds!" Phil shouted up at her.

Kairi panted as she focused on the final barrel; the one on the pillar. She took a few steps back and then took a running leap for the last one. She soared through the air, hoping she would make it.

She barely made it.

Finding most of her energy, and thus her strength, depleted, Kairi resorted to shoving the barrel off and watching it shatter on the ground. Then she sat down and waiting for someone to help her get down from the pillar.

0-0-0

"You're better than I thought." Phil said after Goofy and Donald took their turns. "But you're still not hero material."

"Oh, come on!" Sora exclaimed. "Give us a chance!"

"No way!" Phil said. "You're good, but you're no match for a true hero like my boy Hercules. Now beat it!"

Sora looked about to protests, but Kairi rested a hand on his shoulder and shook her head, silently telling him to back down.

Under the watchful eye of Phil, they pushed open the doors and walked back out into the bright sunlight.

"Well that was fun and interesting." Axel said sarcastically. "About as fun as watching a movie about dung beetles for an hour. Don't. Ask." He warned.

"I wasn't going to." Kairi said. "Where to next? A new world or back to Traverse Town? Whichever way we go, I just hope that the next world has a shower."

Sora looked thoughtfully at the doors that led to the gummi ship. "Well, we could go back and see how Yuffie and the others are doing. And there's always a chance that Riku or Roxas is there. It is at the crossroads of the worlds."

"It's a pity you're leaving so soon." An unfamiliar voice said from behind them.

They turned around quickly to see a blue man shrouded in a black cloak. Yellow eyes stared at them in an almost lazy manner and blue fire blazed from atop his head.

A shiver ran down Kairi's spine and she ducked behind Sora for protection, not liking the feel of the newcomer.

"Why's that?" Axel asked, his tone condescending. He, like Kairi, found the blue man to be very suspicious looking and he didn't trust him at all. _'Not everyone we meet is going to be all sunshine and daisies.'_ He reasoned to himself.

The blue man snapped his fingers and a piece of paper fluttered into view with a flash of blue fire. "Because I happen to have with me a ticket to the very tournament you want to enter." He waved the ticket in their direction, as if to emphasize the fact that he had it. "And I'm willing to give it to you, free of charge, right now."

"What's the catch?" Donald asked.

"Catch?" The man asked. "There's no catch. But if you don't want it, I understand." He turned around and started to walk away. "After all, the tournament is very dangerous."

"Wait!" Sora yelled. "You'll really give it to us? Just like that?"

The blue guy turned back around to face them. "Just like that. No strings attached." He held out the ticket for Sora to take.

Without putting much thought into it, Sora eagerly stepped forward and took the ticket. He read over it once and then smiled up at the man. "This is great! Thanks!"

"Anytime, kid." The guy stepped aside as Sora rushed past him to go back inside to talk to Phil. Axel, Donald, and Goofy quickly followed, but Kairi lagged behind a little.

"I don't know what your game is, but you had better not hurt Sora in any way." Kairi warned as she walked past.

"I wouldn't dream of it, princess."

Kairi gave him one last glare before fleeing into the building after the guys.

0-0-0

Kairi, Axel, and Goofy sat up in the bleachers and watched Sora and Donald face off against the last opponent, a blond mercenary who went by the name Cloud. The three of them had deemed it unfair to have five people gang up on one person and decided to sit out on the last round.

Donald raised his wand to deliver the final blow on the blond mercenary, who had sunk to his knees under the relentless attacks.

"I'm sorry… Squall…" Cloud whispered, not intending for anyone to hear the words.

Somehow, Sora did hear and the name sparked something in his memory. "Donald, stop!" He exclaimed. He ran over Cloud and kneeled down to talk to him better. "Did you just say Squall?" He demanded. "How do you know Leon?"

The blond looked up, surprised. Before he could say anything, Cerberus burst into the arena and snatched Cloud up in his jaws.

"NO!" Sora yelled, jumping to his feet. "Give him back!" He demanded while brandishing his keyblade at the large three-headed dog.

Axel, Kairi, and Goofy raced out into the arena to join Sora and Donald, summoning their weapons as they did so. Cerberus balked at the sight of Kairi's keyblade and backed up a bit before lunging at Sora. As Sora jumped backwards to avoid the heads, Axel swiftly lit his Chakrams on fire and sent them spinning at the beast. Donald and Goofy charged in, doing their best to distract the dog.

"Kairi!" Axel yelled as he brought up a wall of fire to stall for time. "It doesn't like your keyblade! Try and use it to get rid of this thing!"

Kairi nodded and determinedly pointed her keyblade at Cerberus.

"Kairi! Hurry!" Donald yelled.

Instinctively, Kairi let all of her energy flow through her keyblade and gather at the tip. Then she released the energy in a glittering, sparking ball that flew quickly at Cerberus and knocked it off it's feet.

Sora and Axel ran forward to help Cloud out of one of Cerberus's mouths, while Kairi caught her breath and tried to remain standing. Using so much energy at once had left her feeling weak and tired and she needed Donald and Goofy's help to stay up. The six hobbled back through the coliseum doors and into the safe confines of the building before the three headed dog woke up.

Phil sent Hercules out to finish off Cerberus while the others sat around the fires and rested and talked. Some time during all the talking, Cloud snuck away, unnoticed by everyone in the room.

"Hey Phil, do you think we're real heroes now?" Sora asked eagerly.

Phil shook his head. "Kid, you've still got a long way to go. You're good, but you aren't hero material."

"We defeated Cerberus, didn't we?" Donald argued.

"It's not my call to make." Phil said defensively. "But there is one thing I can do." He cleared his throat and hopped up on his pedestal. "I now dub you five Junior Heroes!"

"So we're heroes-in-training?" Axel asked.

Phil shrugged. "If you want to look at it that way. Now unless you all want to stick around and help clean up, there's nothing for you to do here."

For a split second Sora looked almost disappointed, but then he smiled at Phil. "See you around then. We'll keep in touch."

Axel smirked. "Yeah. See ya, goat-man."

"It's Phil!" He yelled as they left. "My name is _**Phil**_!"

Axel snickered as they walked outside, pleased that he found a way to really annoy Phil. Kairi rolled her eyes, annoyed by his immaturity. Sora was too busy talking to Donald and Goofy to notice.

"Hey."

They all quickly turned at the voice, their guard still up after the fight with Cerberus. They relaxed when they saw it was just Cloud.

"Are you okay?" Kairi asked. She had been unable to look him over after they got inside, so she took the time to do so then. She found no injuries and looked up at his face questioningly.

"Nothing a potion can't cure." Cloud told her. "Tell me, how do you know Squall?"

"We met him in Traverse Town with Yuffie and Aerith and Cid." Sora said, somehow able to remember all their names. "He goes by Leon now."

Cloud nodded. "I know." He looked away, his eyes cast to the ground. "How is he?" He asked, surprisingly quiet.

Sora scratched the back of his neck. "I dunno. Okay, I guess."

"We're getting ready to go back." Kairi said. "You could come with us if you'd like."

For a moment, Cloud's blue eyes shone with hope, but just like that the hope was extinguished and his eyes were guarded once more. "There are things I still have to do." He raised his eyes from the ground and looked at Kairi and Kairi only. "Tell him… tell him that I say 'hello'. Will you do that for me?"

Kairi nodded, unsurely at first. "I will." She promised.

Cloud nodded and for a moment Kairi swore she could see something like relief written across his face. But then she blinked and it was gone.

"See you around, Cloud!" Sora said, waving goodbye as the mercenary walked away from them.

Kairi shook her head and headed back to the gummi ship, feeling rather confused. The guys followed.

0-0-0

End Chapter

0-0-0

To tell you the truth, everyone, I'm not enjoying working on this as much as I thought I would. It just feels kind of... boring and uncreative. Maybe it's just that it's more serious than what I'm used to writing, which makes sense since I usually write AU humor fics. But do not despair for I will be continuing this and finishing it! I can't bring myself to not finish this one after how enthusiastically I started.

Maybe things will pick up in the next chapter with the introduction of Demyx. And I'll always be getting away from my original plot idea of doing a chapter for every single world and try to write more humor in and mix it in with the seriousness. And maybe I can kick up a bit of romance soon. Or at least the foundations of it.

So while I can't quite say how many more chapters are left, I can tell you that this story will be at least 12 or 13 chapters long. That's the minimum.

Until next time!

NEXT - Chapter 8: _The Melodious Nocturne_


	8. Chapter 8: The Melodious Nocturne

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

This is probably going to be my last chapter before NaNoWriMo kicks off, so it'll be a lone wait until the next chapter. (Probably around December.)

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 8: The Melodious Nocturne_

The five travelers happily exited the gummi ship upon arriving back in Traverse Town. After spending five days in a cramped space together, all of them were relieved to have the chance to get away from one another and be out in the open air, even if it was just for a little while.

Their first stop was the Accessory Shop to see how the others were doing. Aerith greeted them as they walked in.

"Sora, Kairi, you're just in time." She said warmly. "Merlin wants to see you as soon as possible. It's not an emergency, but it sounds important." Her green eyes fell on Axel. "You must be the guy Yuffie was talking about. She never gave your name, though."

"The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" He asked.

Aerith giggled. "It's nice to meet you, Axel. I'm Aerith."

Axel bowed in a clumsy manner. "That's a pretty name." He said flirtatiously.

Kairi rolled her eyes when Aerith laughed and played along. _'What do they see in that scrawny, red-haired jerk?'_ She asked herself. _'He's been nothing but a pain in the ass since we met!'_

_And yet he's done nothing. _Her conscience whispered. _Other than his annoying catchphrase, he really has done nothing to warrant your distrust. And everyone else likes him. So maybe it's not him who's the problem. Maybe it's…_

"Me?" Kairi whispered out loud. Thankfully, no one seemed to hear her and so there were no awkward conversations as she zoned back in on the conversation.

"Cid's around back if you would like to go see him." Aerith said. "It may be a good idea to get extra parts for the ship in case anything happens."

Goofy nodded. "That is a good idea. Whaddya think, Donald?"

"But the King said--"

"Sora will be fine for a while on his own." Goofy interrupted. "Don't you think he deserves a little time on his own?"

Donald looked over at Sora and sighed when he saw he was busy chatting away with Kairi and Axel. "Okay." He gave in.

While Donald and Goofy left out the back door, Sora, Axel, and Kairi headed out the front door and began the walk to Merlin's. Sora made sure to walk between the two in hopes of keeping things peaceful, but the two still ended up bickering along the way. By the time they reached the doors to the tunnel, Sora had given up on keeping the two from arguing and, just for fun, joined in on a few of the arguments.

They were greeted by Naminé at the end of the path. Her white dress flickered with shades of red, orange, and yellow thanks to the fire that Axel was holding.

"I could hear you coming down the path." She said in her soft voice. "Master Merlin has been waiting for the three of you to arrive. Follow me." Without making a sound, she turned around and glided toward the house. She stopped momentarily to cast 'Stopga' on the moving rocks as they lined up.

The trio followed quickly and quietly, springing lightly over the paused rocks. Axel nearly fell in the water at one point, but he quickly regained his balance and continued on.

Inside they were greeted by Merlin while Naminé disappeared up the stairs.

"Hello again, Sora, Kairi. Ah, you must be Axel!" Merlin said, eying the redhead. "Naminé did mention you before and said you'd be joining Sora and Kairi."

"How'd she know that?" Axel whispered to Sora, who shrugged.

"You wanted to see us?" Kairi politely asked.

Merlin nodded. "I did. I located the first page of the book and wanted to know if you'd like to take a look."

Sora nodded eagerly and then looked hopefully at Kairi and Axel, silently pleading for them to go with him.

Axel looked away, unaffected by the pleading look. Only one person in the world's could get Axel to do anything with a look like that, but Sora was not that person. "Sorry, but me and books don't get along very well." He said, not sounding very sorry at all.

Kairi declined as well. "I'm going to stay and talk to Naminé for a while. If she's not too busy."

"I don't believe she is. But I never know anymore. That girl is a mystery even to me." Merlin said. "Before you go on up, have any of you found any pages to the book?"

"Oh!" Kairi exclaimed. She quickly unzipped her pack and rummaged through the magically enlarged space until her fingers brushed against a piece of paper. She pulled it out and smoothed it out as much as she could before she handed it to Merlin. "I found it in the forest in Wonderland. Sorry that it's wrinkled."

"Excellent!" Merlin exclaimed, relieved to have another page. "Come, Sora. Lets begin to piece the pages back together."

After the pages were placed back and Sora went off to the explore the world of the book on his own, Kairi went upstairs to talk to Naminé and Axel stayed downstairs and talked to Merlin about fire spells. It wasn't much longer than an hour before Sora returned from the book. About that time, Kairi trotted downstairs with a smile on her face.

Axel was the only one who was disappointed when it came time to leave. He was having fun learning different fire spells and getting to show off his skills with it. Merlin was just getting ready to teach him how to make simple fireworks, too.

Kairi and Sora ended up having to drag him out of the wizards house.

* * *

A harsh but gentle melody drifted through First District. The unique sound comforted people and made them feel more at ease. Seating at the center of the square of First District was Demyx, a unique individual even for Traverse Town. The large, blue instrument he played was similar to a guitar in looks and size, but the sound of it was nothing like the sound of a guitar.

Demyx's blonde hair spiked up into a Mohawk and, were they open, his eyes were a clear, ocean blue-green.

"Demyx!" Aerith called as she stepped outside the Accessory shop. "Com on in! It's time for dinner!"

The last note faded away and Demyx looked up and smiled. "Coming!" He called, before he gently lifted the instrument and carried it inside, where he leaned it against a wall before he practically skipped to the kitchen in the back. "I'll set the table." He told Aerith, who was busy with last minute touches for dinner.

Aerith nodded. "Set out five extra plates. We have company."

Demyx started taking plates out of the cupboard. "Are Yuffie and Leon on duty tonight?" He asked.

"Yes." Aerith said. "But we'll fix their plates now so that it'll be ready when they get back. Can you bring two over here?"

Demyx obediently carried two of the plates over to Aerith and then he continued to set the table and hunt down extra chairs. As he scooted the last chair into place and as Aerith set down the last bowl of food on the table, Axel, Kairi, and Sora returned from their trip to Merlin's.

"Axel, put out the fire." Kairi said, her eyes narrowed in anger. "We're inside. You could light something on fire!"

"Relax, Kairi." Axel said, making the fire twirl around his fingers in a thin ribbon. "I've got it perfectly under control."

"I don't care! Put it out!" Kairi snapped, her voice rising.

Sora took a step away from the two, worried that Axel may take things too far in proving that he could control the fire and agitate Kairi. "Maybe you should put it out." He suggested.

Aerith walked into the shop and gave them a warm smile. "I thought I heard you guys. Come on back, it's time for dinner." She looked wearily at the fire that danced along Axel's hand. "Please put out the fire before you come back here." She said before turning around and walking back into the kitchen.

Sora's stomach gave a loud grumble and he grinned sheepishly at his friends before he followed Aerith into the kitchen. Kairi walked past Axel, ignoring him the best she could. Axel let the flames die out and then walked into the kitchen as well.

In the kitchen they were introduced to Demyx, who was already sitting down and eating. Kairi sat down beside him and the two of them were soon lost in conversation. Sora took a seat on the other side of Kairi and Axel sat down beside him. Aerith went out to fetch Cid, Donald, and Goofy while they began eating.

Soon the kitchen was full of noise as everyone talked to everyone and the five travelers told stories of their adventures so far.

"So you guys are traveling to different worlds looking for a way to go home?" Demyx asked Kairi, who nodded.

"Well, I am." She amended. "Sora's looking for his best friend, Riku, and Axel's looking for his best friend, Roxas. Donald and Goofy are looking for their King. And once they find them, then they'll start looking for a way home, I guess."

Demyx sighed. "I wish I could travel around too. I miss home."

'Tell me about it?" Kairi asked.

Demyx smiled and set his fork down. "It's this neat little town where the sky is always the perfect sunset. It doesn't get dark at night like it does here so it's easy to lose track of time unless you can see the subtle changes throughout the day. In the morning, everything is clear and crisp and the sky is filled with shades of yellow and light blue. As the day goes on, most of the yellow darkens to orange and the blue fades away. And as it gets closer to evening, red mixes in with the yellow and orange. By nightfall, the sky is dark orange, red, and red-violet. If you look close enough you can see stars."

"It sounds beautiful." Kairi whispered. "I'd love to visit there someday."

"Yeah!" Demyx said, liking the idea. "You could stay with me and my sister Melody! Well, if you want to."

Demyx and Kairi continued to talk all throughout dinner and even as they helped Aerith clean up. It wasn't until nightfall when they walked outside that they realized they would be separated soon.

"I guess I'll see you when you get back." Demyx said sadly, his eyes downcast.

"Maybe you could come with us." Kairi said, searching for any way they wouldn't be separated. "We could leave Axel here and take you instead!"

Demyx laughed and for a brief moment his eyes lit up happily. "That wouldn't be fair. Besides, he's looking for his friend. That's more important than me going home."

Kairi looked away, ashamed of even suggesting that. "Maybe I'll stay here." She said.

Demyx shook his head. "Someone needs to keep an eye on Axel. He might burn down the gummi ship or something."

Kairi giggled and looked up from the ground. "That's true. I just wish that you could go with us. That way I wouldn't have just Sora to talk to."

"I could try to stow away." Demyx offered.

"Or you could just come on the normal way." Sora said, joining the conversation. "Donald and Goofy said that there's a little more room now thanks to something that Cid did."

Demyx looked a little surprised by the offer and Kairi hugged Sora in joy, something she very rarely did even with her best friend, Katsuo.

"You'd let me come with you? Really?" Demyx asked, awed by Sora's kindness.

Sora nodded. "Yup! What's one more person?"

"Donald won't be happy about this." Kairi warned.

Sora shrugged. "He'll get over it. So, are we ready to go? Did Aerith stock us up with enough of her homemade potions and ethers?"

Kairi told him about the whole two crates of potions, ethers, and remedy's as they began to board the ship.

"Wait!"

Unanimously, they turned around top see Naminé running down the street, haphazardly pulling on a long, billowing white robe while holding onto a white duffel bag. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a messy bun.

"Naminé, what are you doing here?" Kairi asked.

Naminé waited until she stopped right in front of them before speaking. "Merlin told me to come out here and join you guys. He says it's time for my first adventure without him. Besides, you guys need a healer on board, and I fill that role."

Sora almost groaned. "I can feel the walls closing in already."

"What's one more person?" Kairi teased him, using his quote against him. "Lets go break the news to Donald."

Sora sighed. "He's _really _not going to be happy about this."

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

I'm learning some tricks for dealing with writers block in these chapters. When I get stuck I just toss in an argument with Kairi and Axel, which helps me loosen up and get back on track. And now that I have Demyx in here, I'm sure I'll find something to do with him to help get over writers block.

This will probably be my last update until December. NaNoWriMo starts next Thursday and once that kicks off I will have no time to write this. The only way I will post next month is if I get really, really ahead on my story, which will probably _**not **_happen. Maybe I should take the 'probably' out of that sentence and replace it with 'definetely'.

I'll try to work on the next chapter this week and see if I can get something posted before Thursday, but I won't make any promises. And when I do update in December, I'll make sure to write out a summary to post at the beginning of the chapter so you remember what's been going on in this story.

**PROFILES**

**_Sora_**  
Hair color: brown  
Hair style: spiky  
Eye color: blue  
Age: 14  
Weapon: Keyblade (Kingdom Key)  
One of the main heroes in the story, Sora is searching for his best friend, Riku. He started off traveling with Kairi, Axel, Donald, and Goofy, but he's now joined by Naminé and Demyx. He plays the role of the peace keeper in the group, although he doesn't get along very well with Donald.

****

Kairi-  
Hair color: dark red  
Hair style: long; usually in a braid  
Eye color: violet  
Age: 14  
Weapon: Keyblade (Heart Flower)  
The main heroine in the story, Kairi is looking for a way to go home to her family and friends. She gets along just fine with Sora, Demyx, and Naminé, but she argues almost continiously with Axel and she's not sure what to think about Donald and Goofy.****

Axel-  
Hair color: bright red  
Hair style: spiky but long; sometimes pulls it back  
Eye color: green  
Age: 16  
Weapon: chakrams and fire  
Like Sora, he's searching for his best friend (Roxas) although unlike Sora, it's apparant that he likes his best friend as more than just a friend. He now purposely tries to annoy Kairi since she seems to refuse to get along with him. He's not sure what to think about Demyx or Naminé. 

**_Naminé_**-  
Hair color: blonde  
Hair style: shoulder-length, layered  
Eye color: sky blue  
Age: 14  
Weapon: None; uses magic to fight and defend  
She's easily the most mysterious in the group and is also the only one who everyone gets along with. She's been in Traverse Town for as long as anyone can remember and is Merlin's only apprentice. Her magical strength has yet to be seen.

**_Demyx_**-  
Hair color: blonde  
Hair style: mohawk  
Eye color: ocean, blue-green  
Age: 15  
Weapon???  
He wandered around in Traverse Town several days before running into Aerith when she was out getting groceries. After that, he stayed with her and the other "Town Protectors" until Sora and the others came back. Then he left with them to visit the different worlds and look for a way home. Whether or not he can fight remains to be seen.


	9. Chapter 9: Agrabah

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 9: Agraba_

Kairi gentle fanned herself as she waited for Naminé to return for some kind of cover for her head. The hot sun beat down on her and she wished she has at least found a patch of shade in which to wait for Naminé or that she had been smart and not taken her hoodie off on the gummi ship. Every now and then she glanced down at the pink gem in her hand, hoping for some kind of glimmer.

It all started back on the gummi ship when Sora and Donald started to argue over who should drive. It escalated out of control, to say the least, and they ended up crashing in a world covered in desert. They also ended up separated, which could be a good thing since it got Kairi and Axel away from each other and it got Sora and Donald away from each other. The only bad thing was that they also lost the gummi ship.

Kairi sighed and looked around, hoping to see the bright white of Namine's dress or the bright yellow of her hair. In a place such as one like where they were, Namine would be very easy to spot. Everyone that lived there that Kairi had seen had dark hair and skin.

She soon spotted Namine hurrying over to her carrying some kind of pale blue colored fabric. She was already wearing a off-white cover for her head and Kairi noticed that the fabric was long enough to cover most of the other girl's arms as well.

"Here," Namine said, handing Kairi the garment once she reached her. "Put this one. It's not as heavy as it looks."

Kairi unfolded the fabric and found that all she had to do was slip the thing on over her head and then pull up the hood. She did so and soon she and Namine were walking around the market in search of the boys. They didn't think it would be too hard to find Sora, who was wearing bright red, or Axel, who had bright red hair, or even Demyx, since he had blonde hair which wasn't really normal for the world they were in. Both girls knew it would be even easier to spot Donald and Goofy, since they were, technically, a duck and a dog who wore clothes and could talk.

"Where do you think they are?" Kairi asked.

"They could be nearby or they could be far away." Namine said, not having any idea of where they could be. "Lets hope that they're somewhere nearby and that the gummi ship isn't in pieces."

Kairi nodded. "Yeah."

They walked in silence for a while, avoiding people who were rushing by, and then Kairi tripped and fell, landing beside a pile of crates. She groaned as she got up. Naminé rushed over to her and helped her up, careful not to knock anything over. The last thing they needed was for them to cause trouble.

"Are you okay?" Namine asked worriedly.

Kairi brushed off her pants and nodded. "I'm fine. A little bruised, maybe. Now lets go. I want to find the guys and get out of here."

* * *

Not for the first time, Axel cursed the fact that he joined Sora and Kairi on their journey to the worlds. It wasn't so much that he hated being with them, it was more along the lines of being stuck with six other people in an extremely cramped space. Not to mention, half of everyone didn't get along with someone and they'd either spend the time arguing or pointedly ignoring each other. Or in Donald and Sora's case, fighting over who was the better pilot.

The last one, resulted in him being stuck in the middle of the desert with the one person who did not do well at all in the desert. Demyx.

"How you doin', kid?" Axel asked, glancing over at the blond. He would never admit that he was actually concerned.

Demyx didn't glance up and just nodded. He was exhausted and the heat was beginning to get to him. He wiped away the sweat from his forehead and then let his hand fall back to his side.

"Just a little further." Axel said, more to himself than to Demyx. He needed something to distract him from the heat and the endless expanse of sand, and talking was working. "We've just got a little bit further to walk."

Without warning, Demyx's legs buckled and he fell into the sand, unconscious. Axel cursed loudly and went back to the blond. He kneeled down beside him and tried to shake him back into consciousness.

"Kid! Hey, Demyx! Get up!" He yelled, aggravated. "Oh come on, I am not lugging your ass across the desert!"

Demyx didn't so much as twitch.

Axel cursed and walked a few steps away before he started ranting about people who couldn't handle a little bit of heat. He kicked around the sand a bit, exhausting himself to the point that he could barely hold himself up, let alone Demyx. As he sat down beside Demyx's unconscious form, he wished he had thought to at least know how to perform a water spell to cool down.

* * *

Sora was not having a good day. First, Donald wouldn't even let him try to pilot the gummy ship, even though Goofy thought it was a good idea and that it could be beneficial. Then they fought over the steering wheel, which, in hindsight, wasn't the greatest idea, considering how they crashed and got separated shortly afterward.

Then he went and got himself wrapped up in some mess in a new world and was probably interfering with the World Order that Donald was always talking about. He wasn't even sure how he got roped into helping Aladdin, who was having some problems that involved a genie, a princess, and a crazy guy out for world domination. Oh, and there was a parrot involved too.

Sora didn't like parrots that much, ever since a rather weird incident with his friend Selphie's pet bird. Never mind that it was a macaw and not a parrot. They looked too much alike. But that's a different story.

So there he was, traipsing through some weird cave with the Aladdin guy and a monkey with a purple hat. He didn't know where any of his friends were or even if they were okay. He didn't even know if they would ever get off of the world, since the gummy ship was pretty much destroyed in the crash. He hoped one of the others would be able to find pieces to fix it. It would help if they were able to actually find what was left of the gummy ship too.

"Hey Aladdin, how did the Jafar guy get a hold of Genie's lamp?" Sora asked as they walked through one of the many treasure rooms. "And why does Genie have to do what this guy says? If he's so evil, then why can't Genie just not listen to him?"

"Iago took the lamp from me when I was distracted." Aladdin explained. He muttered something that sounded like, "Stupid bird" under his breath. "And Genie has to do what he says because he has the lamp. Arrg!" He stops in his tracks as he growls in frustration. "What are we going to do, Sora? He's got the lamp, which means he has Genie and can order him to kill us or lock us up or something? What have we got that can stop a Genie! This is suicide!"

Abu chattered in agreement as he climbed up to rest on Aladdin's shoulder.

"We have this." Sora said proudly, holding out his hand to easily summon the keyblade. "And we're smart. We can think of a way to beat Jafar at his own game, I bet."

Aladdin looked skeptical, but didn't say anything.

'_I wish Kairi was here.' _Sora thought. _'I bet she would know what to do. Namine and Axel would too.' _He paused and took the moment to go back over what he just thought. _'Wait, that might be just what I need.' _He took the next few minutes to think things out and figure out exactly what his plan would be.

"Sora! Watch out!" Aladdin's sudden yell broke Sora out of his thoughts and right back into reality.

Sora quickly summoned his keyblade as a group of Shadow heartless came out of hiding and surrounded them. "Go on ahead!" He yelled to Aladdin. "I'll take care of these and then follow." When Aladdin didn't move he slashed at the nearest heartless and shouted, "Go!"

Aladdin hesitated a moment longer and then took off running down the treasure room to where they suspected Jafar was hiding with Princess Jasmine and Genie.

Sora quickly took care of the Shadow heartless and tried to follow Aladdin, but was stopped by one of the fire breathing Large Body heartless. His hissed one of Riku's favorite curse words under his breath as he rolled out of the way of a fireball. He ducked behind a large block and tried to figure out how he could get behind the heartless or at least get passed it so he could catch up with Aladdin. He glanced around the stone to locate the heartless and found it only a few feet away and coming closer. Without much thinking, Sora jumped up onto the block and then jumped over the heartless, landing behind it. Before it could turn around, Sora raked his keyblade down it's back and it fell to the ground before fading away and allowing a heart to float up to the ceiling, where it too disappeared.

Sora frowned. That was the first time he noticed a heart floating out of a heartless. He made a mental note to see if that happened with all the heartless. Then he turned and ran in the direction that Aladdin took.

For a while all he could hear was the sound of his bright yellow sneakers hitting the ground as he ran, but soon he could hear fighting in one of the chambers ahead. When he got into the chamber he only had to fight through a small group of heartless, no doubt summoned up by Jafar, before he could get to Aladdin's side and help him evade attacks from Genie. As quickly as he could, he told Aladdin his plan to see what he thought of it. Aladdin agreed.

While Aladdin continued to avoid attacks from Genie, who had been ordered by Jafar to get rid of the raven-haired guy, Sora took off after Jafar with one goal in mind: to get the lamp back from him. With a little help from Abu, who secretly rode on Sora's back and waiting until the right moment to jump out and grab the lamp from Jafar's hand, Sora got the lamp and was able to call off Genie's attacks, if only momentarily.

"Genie, can I make a wish?" Sora asked as he ran over to join Aladdin. He knew he had to get as far away from Jafar as he could, otherwise the corrupt advisor would be able to easily get the lamp back.

"Go right ahead, kiddo." Genie said, relieved that he didn't have to attack his friend any more. "Tell me what you need!"

"Genie, I wish my friends Kairi, Axel, Namine, and Demyx were here." Sora said.

"I hope you have a good plan." Genie warned, before zapping a portal in mid-air that would summon the four teens from wherever they were. "Four friends, coming right up!"

From the middle of the marketplace came Namine and Kairi, who both landed on top of Sora and knocked him over, causing the lamp to go flying from his hands. Aladdin and Abu hurried to retrieve it while Sora and the girls got to their feet just in time for Axel and Demyx to tumble through the portal. Fortunately, Demyx was at least semi-conscious by then even though Axel was carrying him on his back.

"… the hell?" Axel asked, looking around the chamber in confusion. "Someone explain to me how we were just in the desert and now we're underground in some kind of cave? Am I hallucinating?"

"Magic lamp, Genie, I'll explain everything later." Sora promised. "Right now we've got a crazy person trying to kill us and he keeps getting the lamp and making new wishes to try and kill us. He's used two so far, so he's got one more shot and it good be even worse."

"Genie's have to do whatever the holder of the lamp tells them, right?" Namine asked, already trying to form a plan.

"Yeah, that's right." Aladdin said, wrestling with a colorful parrot for the lamp. "Gimme the lamp, Iago! Let go!"

Iago pecked at Aladdin's fingers until the dark-haired male was forced to let go and then he flew, with the lamp, over to Jafar.

"Excellent work, Iago." Jafar complimented.

Just the sound of his voice made Kairi shiver in fear and disgust. To her he felt corrupted with a dark power.

"Hey Kairi, you suppose a Genie's the strongest person in the entire world?" Namine asked her blue eyes focused solely on Jafar.

Kairi looked surprised. "Well, I guess, but what's that got to do with anything?"

Namine shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud." She looked over to the redhead and gave her a meaningful look, trying to gesture with her hands what her idea was.

Axel, Sora, and Aladdin all looked shocked that Namine was saying such a thing out loud, especially in the presence of Jafar. What she was saying could give the evil man an idea for his next wish.

Before they knew it, Jafar had already taken in their words, thought it over, and then made his final wish: "My next and final wish, I wish to be an all-powerful genie!" Jafar shouted, admidst cries of despair from Aladdin and Sora.

Genie closed his eyes and looked away as he zapped his genie-magic at Jafar and granted the evil man's final wish. As the whole cavern started to rumble and a strange wind began to blow, Kairi noticed a pitch black lamp appear on the floor and she ran forward to grab it before anyone else could notice it.

"Hey Jafar, you want to know the one downside to being a genie!" She yelled fiercely over the winds.

Jafar, now a bright red, very intimidating looking genie, looked down at the girl, not really seeing her as a threat. Then he noticed what she was holding and he began to panic. "NO!" He roared, making the chamber rumble even more.

"Yes." Kairi said calmly. "Into your lamp, Jafar!" She commanded.

Jafar screeched and yelled and did everything in his power to get out of the lamp's hold, but in the end it was a futile effort. The magic of the lamp overpowered him and sucked him right into its hold to remain there until someone would unleash him, which, hopefully, wouldn't be for a long, long time.

Namine walked over to Kairi and smiled. "So you did catch on. I knew you would."

Kairi smiled. "I knew there had to be some reason that you said that. Then I remembered reading something once about genies having to obey whoever holds their lamp. From there it wasn't too hard to put the pieces together." She turned around to face the others, who were all looking surprised that they were able to get rid of Jafar that easily. "Anyone know what we can do with this?" She asked, holding up the lamp.

Genie took on a thoughtful look as he floated over to Kairi and plucked the lamp from her hand. "I think the best place for this would be…" He pretended to get ready to throw it as far as he possibly could and then stopped and made a copy of himself to start digging into the ground. "Deep, deep in the ground!"

Aladdin laughed. "In that case, lets put it in the unused palace dungeons. It'll be really protected there."

Genie stopped digging and nodded. "Great idea Al! Lets go do that right now. Go get Princess Jasmine."

Aladdin looked over to where his princess once was and gasped when he didn't see her. "Jasmine!" He yelled, running over to the upraised stone. "She's gone." He said after stopping in front of it.

Genie floated nearby, feeling sorry for his friend. "Just say the word, Al. Just one wish and I can get her back here."

"But it's my last wish." Aladdin said despairingly. "And I promised you I'd free you with my last wish."

Genie shrugged halfheartedly. "What's another couple thousand years to a genie." He lied. "Go on, Al." He gently handed Aladdin his lamp.

Aladdin took the lamp and looked at it for a moment, unsure if he should really make the wish or not. The world travelers gathered all together to make sure everyone was alright and then they looked back over at Aladdin and Genie, wondering what choice the raven-haired male would make.

"I wish… for your freedom, Genie!"

In a blaze of cosmic light that had everyone shielding their eyes, Genie was freed from the lamp forever.

"Hey," Kairi nudged Sora's shoulder. "we should get going. I don't think there's much we can do here. Not now." Unexplainably, her heart ached at the thought of the princess being missing. She could imagine a young woman with long black hair trapped in an unknown land, confused about what was going on and where she was at. The feeling welled up in her chest and she found herself shaking so much that she had to lean against Sora for support.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, concerned.

"The last thing we need is for someone else to pass out." Axel said crossly. He was still being forced to carry Demyx, who was too tired to even stand up on his own.

"I said I was sorry." Demyx murmured sadly. "I wish I wasn't so weak."

No one really knew what to say to Demyx to make him feel better, so they stayed quiet. That was when one of them finally realized that their group was awfully small, almost like two people were missing from it.

"Sora, where are Donald and Goofy?" Kairi asked slowly, looking around in case they were just hiding in the shadows or something.

Sora's mind blanked as he looked around as well. Then he realized the exact wording of his wish and turned to face the others with a sheepish expression. "Oops. I guess I kind of forgot."

"Not to worry, Sora and friends!" Genie said energetically. He and Aladdin had heard the tale end of their conversation and decided to help them out. "I can find them easily."

"Really?" Sora asked, his expression brightening. "That'd be great, Genie! Thanks!"

In a matter of minutes, they were in town following Genie, who was holding some strange beeping machine that strongly reminded Kairi of a metal detector. The thing began beeping faster and dragged Genie down the street, making the others run to catch up. Poor Axel was about ready to pass out from the strain of carrying Demyx in the heat. Finally they caught up to Donald and Goofy, who were asking townspeople if they had seen any unusual people.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora yelled, attracting their attention.

"Sora!" The two yelled in unison, before they ran over and joined them. Goofy hugged Sora, which made the brunet laugh and hug him back. Donald crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Sora while tapping one foot on the ground.

When Goofy and Sora's hugging session was over, he squawked, "Where have you been?! We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Sora forgot to wish you guys to the cave to fight the evil guy." Kairi teased, nudging Sora's shoulder. "It's a good thing I noticed you guys weren't with us."

"Yeah…" Sora scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry 'bout that, guys. I wasn't thinking."

Donald scowled, but Goofy remained optimistic, having already forgiven Sora for forgetting. He didn't expect Sora to remember everything in the heat of a battle, although he couldn't say that he wasn't disappointed.

"It's alright, Sora. Besides, we were able to find the rest of the pieces to the gummi ship and rebuild it. It's a little unstable, but that's okay." Goofy said.

"Speak for yourself." Donald mumbled, but didn't make any move to yell at Sora or the others. He just fell silent for once and continued to sulk.

"I'll remember next time, Donald. I promise." Sora said, meaning it. Then he turned around to face Aladdin and Genie, who were being thanked by Kairi and Namine. "Guys, if there's anything we can do, we'll do it."

"Al, I may not be able to magically bring Jasmine back, but I could travel with them and help look." Genie suggested, knowing that the loss of Jasmine was affecting his friend more than he was letting on.

"We could do that." Kairi said, giving Aladdin a smile. "She must be really special to you."

Aladdin blushed and avoided the question by diving into goodbyes.

Soon, the world travelers were boarding the gummi ship with a miniature Genie sitting on Sora's shoulders. He shouted a loud goodbye to Aladdin as the doors closed and the gummi ship took off into the air to the next world.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Okay, after a 2 month hiatus, which was much longer than what I intended, I have finally gotten back on track with writing this! Yay! I'm actually having alot of fun with this. I suppose it helps that I keep acting scenes out by myself and thinking of cute scenes I could type out. And I've settled on how many chapters this one will be; 13. The 13th chapter will be the last and it'll probably be _really _long.

Hope you all liked this chapter! And I'm sorry for the long wait. I promise you won't have to wait that long again.


	10. Chapter 10: Monstro

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

Ta-da! It didn't take me long at all to get this chapter written up. I'm back to updating at my usual speed of a week between updates. So, 3 chapters left after this one and then I'll attempt to take a mini break to start a few new fics before I post them up here.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 10: Monstro_

The gummi ship traveled through the world channel at its usual fast speed, easily avoiding the obstacles from the heartless and broken doorways with Donald at the wheel. Inside the gummi ship things were peaceful for once, although no one was enjoying being crammed together in the smaller than usual space.

Axel, for one, was completely miserable to the point that he was feeling ill. He never did well in cramped spaces anyway, but usually it was okay in the gummi ship since he could look out into the starry space.

"It'll be good to get off of here when we reach the next world." Kairi remarked, stiffly rotating her arm to loosen it up. She had chosen to sleep on the floor the night before and she was starting to regret it.

Sora nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We should have a few mock-battles when we get the chance too, that way we won't hurt ourselves when we're fighting the heartless. What do you think, Axel?"

Axel remained quiet in fear of throwing up. The longer he was stuck in the gummi ship, the worse he began to feel. He felt a cool hand touch his own and looked to his left to see Naminé looking at him with concerned blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Axel forced a smile that turned out more like a grimace and nodded.

"He's claustrophobic, Naminé." Kairi said suddenly, remembering how Axel was acting in Wonderland. "The gummi ship is a lot smaller since we lost some of the pieces in the crash."

"Will he be okay?" Demyx asked. Ever since Axel carried him out of the desert, he was determined to find some way to repay him.

"He just needs some air." Naminé said. "When we get to the next world he'll be back to his normal self in no time. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to find some spare gummi parts there so Donald and Goofy can work on making this space bigger. That would help a lot."

Everyone, with the exception of Axel, made a sound of agreement. They would all appreciate a little more room. It was only a matter of time before the cramped space started to bother them worse and make everyone more cranky. That would cause more fights.

Suddenly, alarms began to go off and the gummi ship shuddered violently. Everyone in the cabin began to panic and Naminé, usually the voice of reason, quietly made her way to the front to see what was happening. She soon saw the cause of the disturbance.

It was a whale. A very _large_ whale that was swimming right for their small ship with its mouth wide open.

She ran back into the cabin and yelled, "Everyone hold on!"

Everyone grabbed onto something, but before they could yell any questions the space was bathed in darkness and they were thrown onto the floor as the gummi ship crashed to a halt. Thankfully the crash wasn't as bad as the last and most of the gummi ship was still intact.

They crawled out of the gummi ship and looked around in shock and awe. They had landed in the mouth of the giant whale.

* * *

Sora ran through the labyrinth of whale insides with Donald and Goofy close behind him chasing after a puppet boy. Axel and Demyx had long since disappeared, having gotten lost in one of the many tunnels. 

It all started back when they had first crashed in the whales mouth. There they met Gippeto, a kind old puppet-maker and his wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who wanted to be a real boy someday. They were trapped in the whale as well, and, luckily enough, had enough pieces to build a small gummi ship and escape to Traverse Town. With them was a talking cricket named Jiminy, who volunteered his services when he heard of their voyages to many worlds. Soon after, Pinocchio had run off into the labyrinth and Sora volunteered himself, Donald, Goofy, Axel, and Demyx to go after him. The girls stayed behind to help Gippeto, although Kairi wasn't very happy about it. In fact, Sora thought for sure that she would demand to come along too, but then Naminé gently took her arm and promised to teach her some spells.

He ducked through a tunnel leading to one of the many "rooms" and stopped in his tracks when he saw who was with Pinocchio. Donald and Goofy nearly plowed into him, but managed to stop just in time and gave him questioning looks.

"Riku." He whispered in shock. His mind shut down momentarily at the sight of his best friend. He couldn't believe that Riku was in the whale, of all places. He hadn't even thought, not for one second, that he would meet Riku in a place like that. On another world, yes, but not in the inside of a giant, monstrous whale. He fought to form a proper sentence, but even then he chose the wrong thing to say.

"What are you doing here?"

Riku didn't look offended. If anything, he looked purely disinterested. "I'd have thought that was obvious, Sora." He drawled in an almost teasing manner. "I'm playing a game with Pinocchio, of course. Care to join us?"

"Now's not the time for games!" Sora said. "Pinocchio's father is really worried about him! And we've got to figure out a way out of this place."

"Not the time for games?" Riku asked. "I never thought I'd hear you say such a thing. Surely you have time to play a game with your _best _friend."

"I-I-!" Sora stammered, gripping the keyblade more tightly. He couldn't believe that Riku was saying such things.

Donald and Goofy looked at the brunet in concern, wondering if they should say or do anything to help him. They didn't know if Sora would even welcome their help and they didn't want to cause him any more stress than what he was already under.

Sora suddenly found himself gripping air and looked around for it only to find that Riku was holding it up and studying it with a strange glint in his eyes. "Hey! Give that back!" Sora yelled.

Riku took his eyes off the keyblade and raised his eyebrows. "You want this thing?"

"It's not a thing." Sora said, feeling the need to defend his weapon. After all, it had helped him out a lot. "It's a keyblade."

"A keyblade, huh?" Riku said. Then he shrugged and tossed it back to Sora. "Here you go."

Sora took a few steps forward to catch it and then he held it close, hoping it wouldn't disappear on him again. At that point, he was having mixed feelings about Riku. On one hand, his best friend was right there in front of him and he wouldn't have to go around looking for him anymore. But on the other hand, he was acting really weird and not at all… Riku-ish. It was like he was a whole different person.

'_But it's Riku!' _Sora argued with himself. _'He looks and sounds the same. Maybe he's just mad that I didn't find him soon enough. He's never been very patient.'_

_But what if he's been possessed or something? _A voice argued.

'_Possessed? But that's only in the movies. And only people like Tidus believe in stuff like that. And anyway, I would know if Riku was possessed or something.'_

_Would you? Are you sure?_

'_Of course I'm sure! This is Riku! I just know it is!'_

_If you say so. _The voice didn't sound very sure and Sora waited for it to say more, but it didn't.

"Riku," He took a step forward and looked hopefully at the older boy. "Come with us. I've got a group of friends and we're--"

"A group of friends?" Riku interrupted coldly. "Is that what you've been doing this whole time? Making friends?" He hissed.

Sora took a step back, fearful of Riku's new attitude. That wasn't how he imagined being reunited with Riku would go. He figured they'd meet back up and he'd end up crying and then Riku would tease him and then they would go on their merry way and help save other worlds until they could find a way to get home.

"B-but I couldn't have gotten this far without them." Sora tried to defend his actions. "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here to see you now."

Riku turned his head. "I don't want to hear your pitiful excuses." He muttered darkly, before turning around and walking through yet another tunnel.

"Riku!" Sora cried, fear rising in his chest. He couldn't lose Riku! Not when he had just found him! He didn't take note of Donald and Goofy's yells of protest as he ran after Riku, determined to not let him get away. _'I'm going to punch him in the face.' _Sora thought angrily. _'And _then _we're going to sit down and talk.'_

_

* * *

_

Demyx was not enjoying his venture into the innards of the giant whale. He was liking even less the fact that he was following Axel, who seemed to have no sense of direction what-so-ever. He scowled at the redhead's back. _'I could have followed Sora, Donald, and Goofy, but nooo, I had to follow _Axel _instead.'_ Testily, he kicked the pulsing wall and made a face when his foot pulled away with a sticky residue stringing between it and the wall. _'Eww…'_

"Keep up, kid." Axel called over his shoulder. "The last thing I need is for you to get lost."

Demyx childishly stuck his tongue out at Axel, but said nothing. He wasn't one to pick fights and he didn't really know what Axel was capable of doing. He may have seen the redhead fight the heartless, but that didn't give him a good grasp of his skills.

Suddenly, Axel stopped, his whole body going rigid. Demyx stopped as well and frowned. He opened his mouth to ask Axel what he was doing, but before he could Axel started to run. Alarmed, Demyx quickly followed.

'_I am not getting left behind in here!' _He thought to himself. _'This place is creepy and it smells like fish! Normally, I wouldn't mind the fish smell too much, but who knows what I could run into in here! There could be- be- skeletons! Yeah, there could be skeletons in here.' _A shiver ran down his spine and he quickened his pace to keep up with Axel, who was moving faster by the second. _'What's with Axel? It's almost like he's chasing after something, but I don't see--' _

Going around a corner, Demyx was able to catch sight of a flash of blond.

'_The hell was that!? Okay, now things are getting weird. Why are we chasing after the strange yellow thing?'_

Axel knew exactly what it was that they were following. It was the one person he had been aching to see ever since his world fell to the heartless. _'Roxas,'_ He thought desperately._ 'Why is he running from me? Does he know that it's me?' _A hollow feeling filled Axel's chest, making it difficult for him to breath. _'Roxas… please tell me you remember me.' _

"ROXAS!" Axel yelled out of fear and desperation.

For a moment, the figure in front of him seemed to hesitate, but then it ran even faster. Before Axel knew it, the figure had run out of sight and he crashed into one of the pulsing, odd-colored walls. Demyx, worried about Axel running into the wall but thankful that he could stop running, almost didn't jump away in time as a tentacle whipped through a opening in the wall that led to the stomach. With a curse, he stamped down on the tentacle and then dodge rolled out into the stomach, expertly twirling a strand of blue, humming energy around his finger. Before he could do anything with it, a lighting bolt crashed down onto the odd-looking heartless and it slowly withered and faded away.

"Demyx!"

The blond boy looked up just in time to see Sora leap down from a ledge to land in front of him. Donald and Goofy shortly followed. With a sigh of disappointment, he let the energy flow away. He planted a bright smile on his face and greeted the three of them.

"I feel like I was just hit by a semi." Axel muttered as he ducked through the opening in the tunnel to join them. "Just so you guys know, running into those creepy walls is apparently a big no-no."

Sora looked at him in confusion. "Why'd you run into the wall?"

Axel avoided Sora's gaze and ruffled the hair on the back of his neck, a nervous habit that he had never grown out of. "I thought I saw someone. No big deal." He raised an eyebrow at the number of cuts and scrapes all over Sora. "What happened to you?"

"Heartless with tentacles." Sora said with a shrug.

"That's not all, Sora." Donald reprimanded. "We ran into Riku too, remember?"

"Yeah…" Whatever cheerfulness Sora still had deflated with that comment. "Riku was here…"

"You saw Riku?" Axel asked sharply, his face betraying none of his emotions. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Sora practically snapped.

An awkward silence filled the chamber following Sora's yell. Demyx shuffled his feet and searched through his mind for a good neutral subject and upon coming across nothing figured it would just be best if he stayed quiet

"Aww, come on guys." Goofy spoke up. "Lets head on back to the mouth. The others'll be waiting for us there and Pinocchio has already gone back that way."

Axel's expression darkened at the mention of the puppet that got them all into the mess. He shoved his hands into his pocket and turned around to go back into the tunnels. "As if the damned puppet will ever be a real boy. Stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Sora scowled. "Why don't you trade places with him and see what it's like then! As if you would do any better!" He said loudly, making the redhead stop in his tracks and turn around to glare at him.

"Why don't you just shut up and not make idiotic assumptions about me you--"

"OKAY!" Demyx jumped in between them before the fight could escalate. When it looked like they were both about to complain, he hardened his gaze into a glare. "Both of you shut up unless you have something positive to say! Fighting won't get us anywhere and it's only making everyone more miserable. I, for one, am not looking forward to going back through the stupid tunnels and you guys and your stupid bickering won't make it any better. I am tired and hungry and sick of the smell of whale insides. Now is someone going to lead us out of here or am I going to do it myself?" He shot an extra glare at the both of them, daring them to say anything.

Thankfully, the two were finished arguing and were now pointedly ignoring one another, and Demyx, for that matter.

"Good." Demyx said before he looked pleadingly at Donald and Goofy. "Please tell me you guys know the way out."

"Ahyuk. Right this way, Demyx." Goofy said, leading the way back into the system of tunnels and chambers.

Demyx made Axel go next and then he followed the redhead after making sure Donald would be right behind him so that there would be two people between Sora and Axel. He would rather have a stifling silence than arguing that would echo all around.

* * *

"What happened to you?" Kairi asked in alarm, looking at all the cuts on Sora's face. "I knew I should have gone." She marched over and took Sora by the arm, making him yelp. Then she dragged him over to a bench and proceeded to practice her healing skills on him. 

Naminé giggled and called Donald and Goofy over to her to look over their cuts and scrapes. Once she was done with them she got up to talk to Demyx and heal a few of Axel's cuts.

"So, what happened in there?" She asked conversationally. "You guys are being really quiet. I expected Sora and Axel to be gabbing away at how many heartless they fought or something." She looked between the two, noticing how weird they were acting. "Did something bad happen?"

Demyx shrugged. "I'm not really sure what's going on. I was with Axel the whole time and then he started acting all weird and chased after something. The next thing I know he runs into the wall and I almost get beaten up by a heartless tentacle, someone's lightning bolt destroys the heartless, and then Axel and Sora start arguing after Sora says something about seeing someone called Riku." He crosses his arms over his chest. "Am I missing something important, or what?"

Neither Sora nor Axel made any moves to answer the question. It seemed like they would be going out of their way to avoid each other and Demyx for a while.

"Riku is Sora's very best friend." Goofy spoke up. "He lost him when his world was taken by the heartless. He's the reason Sora is traveling around to different worlds. But runnin' into him here is a little weird and Sora says that he was acting all weird and not himself."

"And Axel's looking for his best friend Roxas." Naminé said, looking over at the redhead. "You saw him, didn't you."

Axel stiffened. "I don't know what you're talking about. Why would he be here, of all places? And at the exact same time that Sora finds Riku. Impossible."

"No, just very coincidental. Or maybe not." Naminé amends with a frown. "There's no such thing as coincidences, did you know that? Everything happens for a reason, but how everything plays out depends on your own actions."

"Great, my next actions will lead to me getting on the gummy ship and getting out of here." Demyx said in what he hoped was a cheerful tone. "Who's with me?"

"But what about Gippeto and Pinocchio?" Kairi asked, looking worriedly at the old man and his puppet.

"Don't worry about us." Gippeto said. "We have our own gummy ship here. We'll just light a fire and Monstro will spit us right out."

"Sounds good to me. Can we leave now? Please?" Demyx asked pleadingly. "Something about this place gives me the creeps. Maybe it's the fact that we're _**inside **_a _giant __**whale**_."

"Lets go." Kairi agreed. "The gummy ship is in tact enough that it'll still fly. It can last until our next trip to Traverse Town."

They all got onto the gummy ship with little trouble, although Sora and Axel got into a glaring match when they tried to get on at the same time. Wisely, Kairi butted between them and shoved Sora on first before she followed him, leaving Axel to get on after her.

It didn't take long for Gippeto to get a fire going enough to make Monstro sneeze, and soon they were rocketing out of the whale's mouth and back on track for the next world and whatever adventures it would hold for them.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

For for everything I don't like about this chapter, I actually _**really **_like this chapter. Axel and Sora's argument snuck right up on me and while I intended for them to fight, I didn't even expect it to go like that. I love it when the characters end up surprising me. And Demyx's little internal monologue helped bundles. But my absolute favorite two lines in this whole chapter: _'I'm going to punch him in the face. And _then _we're going to sit down and talk.' _

Writing lines like that is what makes it all worthwhile. (laughs) And noticing the things I don't like helps me work on things in future chapters.

PROFILES

_**Sora**_-

Hair color: brown

Hair style: spiky

Eye color: blue

Age: 14

Weapon: Keyblade (Kingdom Key)

One of the main heroes in the story, Sora is searching for his best friend, Riku. He's teamed up with Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Axel, Demyx, and Namine to go around to different worlds and to look for Riku and to find a way to go back to Destiny Island. _He's run into Riku in the belly of Monstro, the giant whale, and has noticed that something isn't right about his friend. He and Axel are currently fighting, although no one (including themselves) really knows why._

_**Kairi**_-

Hair color: dark red

Hair style: long; usually in a braid

Eye color: violet

Age: 14

Weapon: Keyblade (Heart Flower)

The main heroine in the story, Kairi is looking for a way to go home to her family and friends. She's found a friend in Sora and Namine and gets along with Donald, Goofy, and Demyx, but doesn't seem to like Axel very much. _She has a very grudging respect for Axel, but still doesn't really trust him. The fact that he and Sora are fighting isn't helping matters right now._

_**Axel**_-

Hair color: bright red

Hair style: spiky but long; sometimes pulls it back

Eye color: green

Age: 16

Weapon: chakrams and fire

Like Sora, he's searching for his best friend (Roxas) although unlike Sora, it's apparant that he likes his best friend as more than just a friend. _While inside Monstro, Axel thought he saw Roxas and ran after him. The figure disappeared before he could get a good look, leaving him questioning if he really saw something. He and Sora are currently fighting, which is reminding him even more of his friend._

_**Naminé**_-  
Hair color: blond  
Hair style: shoulder-length, layered  
Eye color: sky blue  
Age: 14  
Weapon: uses magic to fight and defend  
She's easily the most mysterious in the group and is also the only one who everyone gets along with. She's been in Traverse Town for as long as anyone can remember and is Merlin's only apprentice. Her magical strength has yet to be seen. _She's good at healing and is teaching Kairi a few healing spells. She's fast taking on the role of the peace-keeper in the group._

_**Demyx**_-  
Hair color: blond  
Hair style: mohawk  
Eye color: ocean, blue-green  
Age: 15  
Weapon: a strange blue, humming energy  
He wandered around in Traverse Town several days before running into Aerith when she was out getting groceries. After that, he stayed with her and the other "Town Protectors" until Sora and the others came back. Then he left with them to visit the different worlds and look for a way home. Whether or not he can fight remains to be seen. _He gets really annoyed when people argue and hates silences. He also dislikes not knowing what's going on._

_**Riku-  
**_Hair color: silver-white  
Hair style: around his shoulders  
Eye color: aquamarine  
Age: 15  
Weapon???  
Sora's best friend. It's unclear how he got inside Monstro or why he's so angry at Sora. Even odder is his ability to handle the keyblade.

_**Roxas-**_  
Hair color: blond  
Hair style: spiky, (tends to stick up to one side)  
Eye color: blue  
Age: 14  
Weapon???  
Axel's best friend. Whether it really was him in the chambers of Monstro's belly is uncertain.

_**NEXT- Chapter 11: Halloween Town**_


	11. Chapter 11: The Ansem Report

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 11: The Ansem Report_

For the first time in nearly two weeks, the gummi ship was filled with cheerful laughter and talking. The seven travelers had left Atlantica two days before and it was in that world that Axel and Sora finally stopped arguing with and ignoring each other. And Demyx was in such a good mood that he couldn't help but summon his sitar to his hands and play music for them. Even Kairi, despite getting her hair chopped short in a bizarre accident in Halloween Town, a world they had visited right before Atlantica, was in a good mood. The only one who seemed a little depressed was Axel.

"Hey." Naminé softly greeted as she sat down beside the redhead.

Axel grunted a reply and continued to look at the floor, his green eyes dull. Across the room, Sora managed to coerce Kairi into dancing with Demyx continued to play his sitar, but Naminé and Axel ignored them for the moment.

"How are you feeling? You look… ill." She said worriedly.

"I'm fine." Axel lied, still not looking up.

Naminé frowned and reached up to lay her hand against his forehead. She quickly removed it when she felt how hot he was. "That's a lie." She almost snapped at him, but caught herself at the last moment and softened her voice. "You're burning up, your hair's gone flat, and you're not cracking any jokes about Sora's dancing. Either being in Atlantica really messed with your system or there is something else bothering you."

Axel said nothing. He wanted to tell her; to spill all of his thoughts and feelings to Naminé. But every time he tried to open his mouth and tell her he found he couldn't. His throat would close up and he'd come close to crying as all of his feeling welled up to the surface. It wasn't something he was used to feeling. He was use to being in control of his emotions and being the aloof yet hotheaded one in his group of friends. He could even stay in control when he was around Roxas, and something about that blond always made his heart beat faster and his mind swirl with crazy thoughts.

"Axel." Naminé's gentle voice slipped through his thoughts and he lifted his head to look at her. "We're all here for you if you want to talk. I know things are awkward between you and Sora right now and that things are just getting better with you and Kairi, but any one of us would listen if you want to talk. We're all in this together, okay?" She smiled and gently patted his arm in a reassuring manner.

Axel let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Thanks." He said quietly. "I just… I don't know where to start." His throat began to close up as the usual flood of emotions raced to the surface. He dropped his head into his hands, hoping to hide his tears and frustration with himself.

"Axel…" Naminé murmured. Her blue eyes easily showed her worry. It only took her a few seconds to decide to give Axel a one-armed hug. "Don't be afraid to cry." She told him. "It might help better than you know."

Axel held back his tears a moment longer before the damn broke. Sobs wracked his body as he leaned onto Naminé for support. Demyx, who was still playing his sitar for Kairi and Sora, looked over at them and plucked the next chord harshly before he stopped playing. Sora and Kairi followed his gaze and they too looked at Axel in astonishment.

Naminé put her finger to her lips, gesturing that they should stay quiet and just let him cry. Nearly a half hour later Axel had calmed down enough to speak and he looked around the gummi ship with puffy red eyes. Feeling awkward, Sora walked over and sat down next to him.

"Are you okay, Axel?" He asked, worried.

Axel began to open his mouth to say yes, but closed his mouth instead and shook his head. "No." His voice sounded hoarse from all of the crying he had done. "But I will be." He looked to his other side where Naminé was sitting and tried to give her a smile. "You're right. Crying does help a little."

Naminé nodded and patted is arm again before she stood up. "I'm going to go talk to Demyx. He looks like he's going to break down and start crying any second now. Water-elements are super-sensitive to people's emotions." She smoothed out some creases in her dress and then walked across the cabin to Demyx, who was blotting at his eyes with a corner of his shirt.

As Naminé walked over to Demyx, Kairi took her previous place beside Axel.

"Anything you want to talk about?" She asked.

"Come on, Kai, we're guys." Sora said. "We don't sit and talk about our feelings, it's too… girly."

"Don't forget this 'girly' can kick your ass." Kairi said in a cheerful tone. "And I'd prefer not getting blown up because Axel here suffers a stress attack and looses control. Fire-elements have to be especially careful and keep their emotions in check."

"Oh." Sora deflated a little and scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Right. I knew that. Okay, talk away, then." He dropped his hand into his lap and looked up at Axel expectantly.

"Start wherever you want, Axel." Kairi advised. "Pick something that's bothering you and go with it."

Axel leaned back so he was against the wall and then tilted his head up so he was staring at the ceiling. He knew if he looked at either of them he wouldn't be able to say anything. "It's just…" He sighed and paused a moment before plowing on. "It's everything. I could have stopped that heartless from chopping off Kairi's hair, but I was too busy fighting with Sora to notice it until it was too late. And I felt so useless in Atlantica because I couldn't use my fire or throw my chakrams. And in Monstro-" He hesitated, his eyes clouding over with worry. "When I thought I saw Roxas and Sora got to actually see and talk to Riku, I just… I couldn't handle it. I couldn't understand why Roxas wouldn't stop for even one minute to talk to me. He's my best friend! He- I-.." Axel forced himself to stop as his throat once again closed up and the horribly familiar ache in his chest returned. 'I love him.' He let the words go unspoken, not wanting to or ready to say them out loud.

"You were jealous?" Kairi asked.

Axel nodded and breathed in shakily, trying to calm himself down. Once he was able to breath somewhat normally, he began talking again. "And Sora… being around you when you remind me so much of him makes it even worse. Your mannerisms, your eyes, your hair," He glanced down for a moment so he could ruffle Sora's spiky hair. "All similar."

Kairi frowned. "He's not Roxas."

"I know." Axel managed to keep his tone neutral as his gaze rose back to the ceiling. "Sora could never replace Roxas and Roxas could never replace Sora. And I'm not looking for a replacement, I'm looking for my Roxas. Got it memorized?" The use of his favorite saying seemed to ignite a spark of cheer in Axel and he even managed to lower his gaze to the opposite wall. "I've got a picture. It's an old one, but maybe you'll see the similarities too." He reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. He then flipped it open and removed a photo that had scorch marks around the edges. "Here." He handed it to Kairi first.

The auburn-haired girl gently took the photo and nearly gasped when she saw the cheerful blue-eyed blond who was sitting next to a younger Axel who was giving him bunny ears. She glanced over at Sora, her blue-violet eyes wide. Wordlessly, she handed the photo over to Sora, who had no qualms about gasping and yelling, "He looks like me!"

Axel chuckled. "I told you. You and Roxas could be twins."

"He looks so happy." Sora said, his voice growing soft. "You really are best friends, aren't you?"

"That was taken right before I started my freshman year." Axel said. "Back when he smiled and laughed freely." He gently took the photo back from Sora and caressed the edges of it with his long fingers.

"What happened?" Kairi asked gently.

"I don't know." Axel said honestly. "I mean, I got to high school and made a few new friends, but I called him every day after school and hung out with him on weekends when I wasn't loaded down with homework." He smiled. "He'll be a freshman this year."

"So he's fourteen like me and Sora?" Kairi asked, her brow furrowed. "That's rather odd, isn't it? That he looks like Sora and is the same age. You don't have a twin, do you, Sora?"

"'Course not." Sora said. He smiled and went one. "I have enough trouble just trying to find Riku again. Could you imagine if there was someone else I had to find?"

Kairi laughed. "I imagine you'd do fine, Sora. Anyway, how old are you, Axel? There has to be at least a year between you and Roxas."

"Two, actually." Axel said. "I turned sixteen three months ago."

Sora grinned. "You're even older than Riku!" He poked Axel in the side, making the redhead jump. "Oldie."

Axel rolled his eyes and ruffled Sora's hair for the umpteenth time. "Quiet you. Don't torment your superiors."

Kairi can't help but snort and then cover it up by laughing. "Sorry, Axel, but you're about as superior as Demyx over there." She waved her hand in the direction of the blond boy, who was crying on Naminé's shoulder. She covered her mouth to hide her smile and then looked back to Axel and Sora. "I'm going to go help Naminé before Demyx somehow manages to flood us."

"With what? Tears?" Axel scoffed.

"Quiet, you." Kairi said, prodding his side.

Axel jumped again and swatted her hand away. "Don't do that!"

A devious glean enetered Sora's eyes and he quickly prodded Axel's side, eliciting a yelp from him. Giggling, Kairi left Axel to Sora's mercy, hoping the two wouldn't start fighting again.

Sora teased Axel about his sensitive side for a few minutes before Axel began to turn the tables and gain the upper hand.

"You know," The redhead began in a conversational tone. A smirk played on his lips and a cunning shine appeared in his eyes. "Roxas is _really _ticklish." His smile grew broader when he saw Sora stiffen and look at him wearily. Axel turned his body so he was facing Sora and prepared himself to quickly grab Sora before he could get away. "Shall we find out how ticklish you are?"

Sora tried his best to get up quickly, but Axel saw it coming and quickly tackled him to the floor and pinned him there with little effort. He sat down on the boy's back and carefully switched to one hand to hold Sora's hands behind his back. That left one hand free for tickling.

"Now, I've got Sora pinned to the ground and one free hand to do whatever. What ever shall I do?" He mused out loud.

Sora started to wiggle to try and get free, but found it impossible to move Axel. Kairi, Demyx, and Naminé watched them from the other side of the room, ready to step in if things get out of hand.

Axel leaned down to whisper in Sora's ear and his long, spiky hair fell over his shoulders to obscure his face. "Now, you wouldn't be trying to escape, now would you?" He asked. "I'll have to punish you now."

Sora's wiggling began again when Axel started tickling him. The redhead managed to hit every single one of his ticklish spots and soon he was laughing so hard that he was crying.

"Stop!" Sora gasped through laughter. "Axel, please!"

"Say 'Axel is the greatest'." Axel said, letting up a little.

"A-Axel's the greatest!" Sora rasped.

Axel stopped tickling him and got up. He waited for Sora to catch his breath and then he helped the smaller boy up. "Now you know not to poke me in the side unless you want to be tickled."

Sora looked up at him. "Truce?" He asked.

Still holding Sora's hand, Axel shook it with a grin. "Truce." He agreed.

* * *

Traverse Town was quiet when they arrived. It was the first time the seven had arrived at a world during the night, so the silence came as a surprise to them. Aerith came out to greet them and ushered them into the shop so they could talk. Yuffie was in there sitting on the counter, swinging her legs. Leon was over in a corner talking to Cid.

"What's going on?" Demyx asked. It was one of the few times he had seen them all in the same room and all of the other times it was because something was wrong.

"We found a report on the heartless." Aerith said. "It was written by a man named Ansem who lived in Hollow Bastion and conducted experiments on hearts. All of it was written in code and it's taken us until now to translate it. If you want to talk a look it's over there on the counter." She gestured to it and frowned at Yuffie but didn't make her get down.

"By the way, Merlin wants to see Naminé, Sora, and Donald real quick." Yuffie spoke up. "I ran into him in 3rd during patrol and he told me that when you guys get back to send you to him."

Naminé bit her lower lip. "Do you know what it's about?" She asked.

"Nope. He didn't say." Yuffie said. "Nothing too urgent, or else he would have had Cid contact you guys to ask you to come back here."

"Okay." Naminé said before looking over at Sora and Donald. "Do you guys want to go now or wait until you read the report?"

Sora looked hopefully at Kairi. "Fill me in when I get back?" He asked.

Kairi nodded. "Of course. Don't take too long."

"And be careful." Leon added. "There have been more heartless than usual. Don't let your guard down."

"No worries." Sora assured them. He gave them a smile and summoned his keyblade before he, Naminé, and Donald left the shop to walk out to Merlin's house in Third District. As they left, Demyx walked over to the counter and picked up the bundle of papers and began to read the first one aloud.

"_Much of my life has been dedicated to pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that. I am blessed with people's smiles and respect…" He _continued reading the rest of the first one and then Kairi took the papers to read the second one. Axel was next and then Goofy and then they started over until they got to the last one.

"_When the heart casts off the flesh, where does the body go? Heart and soul are separate, and the spirit remains in the body. But can we assume that the leftover body and soul perish? Certainly when the heart changes into a Heartless the body disappears. However, that is only this world's story; in another world, mightn't they change forms like the Heartless and exist there? If we take that to be the case, there must be a you other than yourself existing somewhere. An existence neither of darkness nor of light. An in-between existence. Cast off by the heart, a mere shell, one who begrudges both the darkness and the light. This mystery cannot be easily resolved. The relationship between the heart and the flesh is a complex one. But since we exist here, they cannot be termed as existent. Therefore I shall call them... 'The non-existent ones.'." _Demyx read.

"What does this mean?" Kairi asked no one in particular. "The non-existent ones… How can there be two of the same person at the same time? It doesn't seem possible."

"But there could be another you if you lost your heart." Demyx pointed out. "It said earlier that those who lost their hearts disappeared, so if they disappeared and turned into a heartless then there can be another you." He blinked in confusion. "That made much better sense in my head."

Kairi shook her head. "No. It made sense." She looked over at Aerith. "What world was he from? Do you know?"

"She told us before, Kairi." Axel remarked. "Hollow Bastion, remember? Weird name for a world, if you ask me. Is there any way to get to the world or has it been destroyed?" He asked. "If we can get there, maybe we can find the answers we need. End it where it began or something."

"It's still around." Cid told them. "The heartless use it as a breeding ground."

"If that's the case then you need to be prepared." Leon spoke up. "The heartless there will be stronger than any you have ever faced. The world has grown weak and you'll have to fight your way through hoards of them to get anywhere."

Kairi easily summoned her keyblade, smiling when she felt the familiar hum of the weapon. "Then we'll have to train until we're ready. There are plenty of heartless around here that we can fight and we can always fly out to Olympus Coliseum." Her eyes flickered to Leon for a moment and she sneakily added, "And maybe Cloud will be around to give us some tips."

Leon tensed up, his eyes widening a fraction at the mention of the blond man's name. "C-Cloud?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "How-?" He stopped and cleared his throat, banishing any unnecessary emotion. "How do you know Cloud?" He asked calmly.

"We met him in Olympus, right?" Goofy asked. "Sora and Donald fought him for a while before that big dog came in and snatched him up!"

Leon visibly paled.

"But then we all rushed in and fought the dog." Goofy continued, unaware of the effect his words were having on the tall brunet. "Kairi here shot some energy at the dog and we got Cloud out. And then Hercules went in and got rid of the dog while we went inside."

"Did it really have three heads?" Yuffie asked almost excitedly. She looked taken aback by the confused and curious looks she received. "What? Cerberus is the three-headed dog that guards the Underworld. I _do _read, you know. I'm not dumb."

"Yeah, it had three heads." Axel said. "And if the next word out of your mouth is 'cool' then all I've got to say is no, not cool. Fighting a three-headed dog that wants to eat you and can spit balls of hellfire is not cool at all. And I'm immune to most fire!"

"Is Cloud okay?" Leon couldn't help but ask.

"The last time we saw him he looked fine." Kairi assured him before she yawned and leaned back against the counter. Her keyblade disappeared in a shower of colorful sparkles.

Aerith zeroed in on Kairi's sleepiness right away and whisked the auburn-haired girl away to bed first. Then she returned to show Axel and Demyx to their beds.

Naminé, Donald, and Sora didn't return until the next morning and when they did it was to find Axel and Demyx holding a mock battle in the court square. Yuffie and Leon were standing on the sidelines shouting advice while Donald and Goofy occasionally caused interference to make sure the two were paying attention to their surroundings.

Demyx spun his humming blue energy as he ducked and dodged the fire and chakrams that Axel threw at him. The energy danced around his fingertips before growing and flowing down his arm in looping, spiraling patterns. It felt cool against his skin and helped him stay calm and focused while Axel's attacks grew wilder. Once the energy was built up enough, he directed his hand toward Axel and pushed the energy toward him.

In a matter of seconds the redhead found himself all the way across the court square laying flat on his back. Sitting up, he found himself soaked to the bone.

Demyx didn't look at all tired and was even humming as he wrapped new energy down his arm and made water bubbles float around him. He fed even more energy into one of the water bubbles and used it to form a water clone of himself. Laughing, he made it dance around the square.

"Now's not the time for playing!" Axel yelled, staggering to his feet. He wiped his wet hair from his eyes and concentrated on summoning his fire to dry himself off. In a matter of seconds, he was dry. Smirking, he summoned a chakram and threw it at Demyx's water clone, making the thing burst and fall apart. The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by ten water clones that were attacking him. "DEMYX!" He yelled, easily slicing through them. They were more annoying than anything else and they _wouldn't go away!_

"That's for destroying my water clone." The blond said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What are you guys doing?" Sora asked, walking up beside Leon. He looked up at the older brunet, figuring he'd at least get an answer from him. "Why are those two fighting? Did Demyx wake Axel up by dumping water on him again?"

It was Yuffie who replied. "Nope. They're training for when you guys go to Hollow Bastion." She said cheerfully. "I didn't think Demyx was such a good fighter. I mean, I guess it's not really fair pitting water against fire, but still."

Naminé watched as Axel managed to dry up all of the water with a massive fire blast and then zero in on Demyx and launch an all-out attack on him. Ignoring Demyx's squeals of fright and then Axel's yelp of pain when Demyx formed a water whip and smacked him with it, Naminé turned to face Yuffie and asked, "Where's Kairi?"

"Inside, I think." The raven-haired girl said. "What happened to her hair, anyway? It was so pretty and long before!"

"We were in Halloween Town and this weird mummy-like heartless snuck up on her and sliced her hair off." Sora said. "We noticed it in time for Kairi to move out of the way of getting hurt, but-- WHOA!" He stared past Yuffie, his mouth agape.

Naminé and Yuffie turned around to see what Sora was looking at. It was Kairi and Aerith, although it took them a moment to realize it was Kairi. Her hair was cut even shorter and was more like Yuffie's and she was wearing a white tank top and a pretty, knee-length pink skirt that had a slit up both sides. Underneath she wore a pair of black shorts. Her old sneakers had been replaced by a pair of worn, black leather boots. She was still wearing her glasses though.

"Wow, Kairi, you look really pretty." Sora said.

Kairi blushed and self-consciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Really?" She asked hopefully. "I don't wear skirts often. I look weird in them."

"You look fine!" Sora insisted. "Right, Naminé? Donald? She looks really pretty!"

Naminé nodded. "It suits you, Kairi. Pink is a good color on you."

Kairi looked surprised. "My friend always told me pink clashes with my hair, so I never wear it."

"I think your friend was mistaken." Goofy said. "Sora and Naminé are right, it looks good on you."

Kairi smiled. "Thanks, guys. I'll get used to it soon. It'll just take me a little while." She looked over at Demyx and Axel and stifled a laugh when she saw that Demyx was chasing Axel around screaming, "Dance to the beat!"

"Those two are still at it?" Aerith asked. "They'll be exhausted by lunch. Oh!" Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth. "I forgot all about lunch! I need to get started." She hurried back into the shop, leaving the others to watch Demyx and Axel.

Kairi, Sora, Naminé, Donald, and Goofy sat down in the grass to talk and were soon joined by Yuffie. At first they just talked about how nice it was to be in a safe world where they wouldn't have to constantly worry about being attacked. Then it turned to more serious matters, namely, Ansem's report.

"It's kind of confusing to understand." Kairi admitted when Naminé asked what was in the reports. "Basically, Ansem was a scientist living in Hollow Bastion and he conducted experiments on hearts. That's how he found out about heartless. And then later he created artificial heartless, but that was after he studied them for a long time and found out they were attracted to people's hearts. He let one loose in his castle and followed it and it led him to a door he had never seen before. He called it the door to the heart's world." She explained. "He opened the door and that night there was a meteor shower."

"I remember that!" Yuffie exclaimed. "It was a long time ago, but I still remember it. Me and Leon and Aerith sat outside and watched it. It was really funny because a piece of one of them fell on Leon's head. Actually, that's how we got our first gummi block."

"Anyway, after that he made a machine so he could make artificial heartless. I think he put some kind of symbol on them. Do you remember, Goofy?" Kairi asked.

Goofy nodded. "The report said he marked the ones he created."

Kairi smiled gratefully at him and then continued. "He was visited by a king of another world who told him about gummi blocks and interworld travel and the keyblade. Ansem seemed really interested in the keyblade, like he wanted it for himself. And…" She paused for a moment. "There's a legend behind the keyblade."

"_The wielder saved the worlds or brought ruin and chaos down upon them_." Naminé recited. "Is that the one?"

Kairi nodded. "Yeah. And after the visit from the king, he became obsessed with the idea of the keyblade and traveling to different worlds. That's when he… he cast aside his body and went into the darkness."

"He gave up his heart." Naminé murmured. "That makes sense. Much better sense than what I thought before." She got up and paced a little, ignoring the confused looks from her friends. "He didn't disappear and the world didn't fall. He gave up his heart and became a heartless and the heartless are using Hollow Bastion as a breeding ground of sorts. They see it as home." She paused and looked at Kairi. "What did it say about the princesses?"

Kairi looked taken aback and had to think a moment about the last three reports. "Umm… he said that the princesses were tied closely together with the keyblades and that they probably resonate with each other." Her brow furrowed. "I think he picked a girl in Hollow Bastion and sent her to another world as an experiment, hoping she had the same qualities as the princesses and would automatically go to the keyblade wielder."

The six were silent for a moment.

"So… do either of you remember anyone just appearing in your worlds when you were younger?" Yuffie asked. "'Cause if you do, then that girl is the princess of Hollow Bastion."

Sora shook his head. "Nope. And I would have heard about it too. Destiny Islands is pretty small. News travels fast. What about you, Kai?"

Kairi shook her head. "No. And I would have noticed too. I lived in an orphanage until I was seven."

"Hey, imagine if Kairi were the princess." Yuffie said, giggling.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because that would make so much sense." She said sarcastically. "I don't like skirts and dresses. Do I even look like a princess to you?"

"Well…" Yuffie leaned closer to Kairi, as if wanted a better look. "I don't know. I've never met any other princess." She sat back with a grin. "But I bet you'd make a great princess! Who cares if you don't like skirts and dresses. You can be a unique princess who doesn't play the part of the damsel in distress. What do you think, Sora?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah! That'd be neat!"

"Don't we have other things to worry about?" Kairi asked, trying to change the subject. "Like training? If we're going to Hollow Bastion we need to be ready. Leon said that the place will be overrun with heartless." She got up and looked at Yuffie. "Train with me?" She asked.

Overjoyed, Yuffie agreed and soon the girls were heading off to second district to fight heartless. While those two fought heartless, Leon broke apart Demyx and Axel and paired Axel up with Sora and Demyx up with Naminé. Donald and Goofy went off to the side to train on their own.

After a while Aerith called them in for lunch and they discussed what to do next. Axel and Sora wanted to leave for Hollow Bastion right away, but Kairi wanted to spend a little more time resting and getting some training done. They reached a compromise when Naminé told them it would take at least two days to gather all of the supplies they would need.

For the next two days the seven rested and trained as much as they could and enjoyed their time together. Their trip to Hollow Bastion could end up being the place where they find out all of the answers to their questions and show the pathway home and to their friends. Naminé in particular seemed determined to spend as much time with her friends as possible.

The two days passed quickly and all too soon they were crowded up in the gummi ship again and flying out to Hollow Bastion using the warp drive. It wouldn't take them long to reach their destination.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

I think seven pages is a good length for a chapter, don't you? Man, I had fun with this one. Between Axel having a stress attack and me getting to write the Demyx vs. Axel "fight" scene, I don't know which was my favorite part to write. Maybe the whole Axel tickling Sora scene.

This one feels more like a filler chapter, but it's got lots of important things in it too. And I got to work with Demyx a little more. (huggles Demyx) He's so much fun!

Anyway, next chapter they arrive at Hollow Bastion and more fun stuff happens. I actually meant to get to Hollow Bastion in this chapter, but I like the way this turned out more. The next chapter should be another long one. Unless I suffer massive writers block and find myself unable to write fight scenes. I think I'm getting better at it. A little.

In completely non-story related news: I'm going to a convention later this month! (dances in place) I'm so happy! I just hope I can get a costume together. At this point I'm probably going to go as KH2 Rikku unless I miraculously manage to find stretchy polyester-nylon white fabric to do a Naminé dress. The convention is SheVaCon. Anyone else going? Or even heard of it?


	12. Chapter 12: Kingdom Hearts

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Disney and Square Enix.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 12: Kingdom Hearts_

Axel was running. He was running as fast as he possibly could, his legs pumping and his arms swinging. A cool wind blew through his red hair, spinning strands into a tangled mess. None of that mattered to him.

'_Gotta keep running.' _He told himself.

_**Why?**_A voice asked. _**What's the point if you're not going anywhere? Why don't you just sit down and rest?**_

'_I've got to find him.' _

_**Find who?**_

'_Roxas.' _As soon as the name crossed his mind, he spotted a flash of blond hair ahead. "Roxas!" The scream tore from his throat and echoes around him as he stumbled and fell. He pushed himself back to his feet and began running again, going faster than he was before, determined to keep the blond in view. "Roxas! Wait for me!" He yelled as tears began to prick at his eyes. "I'm coming! Wait for me!"

"_Axel!"_

_

* * *

_

Axel hit the floor heavily and shockwaves pounded his body. He laid there on the floor for a moment, in shock and only dimly aware of the cool hands helping him sit up.

"Axel?"

The redhead blinked unstably and finally focused on the pair of royal blue eyes in front of him. His eyes fluttered shut as he whispered, "Roxas."

Sora panicked and nearly dropped Axel when the redhead passed out. If it weren't for Demyx helping him hold him up, then Axel would have woken up later with a headache.

"What's wrong with him?" Kairi asked, worried.

Naminé quickly settled down in front of Axel and laid her hand on his forehead. With a quick sweep of her magic she analyzed Axel's wellness and reported it back to the others. "He's been under a lot of stress lately and it's taken a toll on him. His temperature is dangerously high, even for him. Be careful not to touch his skin or else you'll get burned." She held up her reddened hands to show them that even with magic coating her hands she still got burned.

"So why's he like this?" Demyx asked.

Naminé frowned. "He hasn't been eating as much as he should. It's making him burn out."

"Fire elements have super-high metabolisms." Kairi told Sora and Demyx. Her blue-violet eyes were worried, an unusual sight when considering her worry was over Axel. "He should eat at least two times more than any of us otherwise his powers turn on him and…" She hesitated a moment.

"His powers are eating away from him from the inside." Naminé said bluntly. "I want you three to go get food and bring it in here. When he wakes up we need to get him to eat as much as he can. Kairi, you know what food he'll need. You've read my book."

Kairi nodded and then led the two boys back to storage to get food. Meanwhile, Naminé summoned her wand and set her magic to work making a tea for Axel. Axel began to awaken as Demyx returned with an armful of food.

"Is that food?" He hoarsely asked, trying to focus his eyes on Demyx.

"Mmm hmm." Naminé distractedly hummed, keeping her wand trained on a white teapot and teacup, which were floating slowly over to them. "Go ahead and set the food down over here, Demyx." She said. "And watch out for the tea." She flicked her wand, trying to get the china to float faster.

Demyx seemed to perk up. "We're having tea? Can I go back and get started on lunch for all of us? Axel's not the only one who needs food."

A small smile appeared on Naminé's face. "Actually, Axel's having tea, but if you want some of the usual I can make that too. And get Kairi to help you make breakfast. Sora burns things."

Demyx beamed and hopped off to find the pretty redhead. His relief that Axel will be okay once he eats something overpowers his worry about his current state. That and he got to drink his favorite tea and make breakfast with Kairi. He breezed past Sora, who was struggling with his armful of food, and stuck his head into the storage room.

"Kairi! Naminé wants us to make breakfast!" He cheerfully said. "And she's going to make tea!"

Kairi couldn't help but giggle at his enthusiasm. "Alright, help me carry some stuff to our 'kitchen' so we can get started."

The "kitchen" was just a small added section to the gummi ship that had a small counter and a wood-burning magical stove (probably donated by Merlin) and a magical mini-fridge. They did all of their cooking there so they wouldn't accidentally burn down one of the hammocks or sleeping bags.

While Kairi and Demyx got to cooking and Sora struggled his way to Naminé and set the food down, Naminé finished preparing Axel's tea and handed it to him.

"Drink all of it. It'll help." She told him.

Axel looked skeptically at the tea and then back at Naminé. "It smells weird."

"It's suppose to." Naminé said. "Drink it, Axel. It really will help. And it tastes better than it smells."

Deciding to trust Naminé, Axel drank all of the tea quickly and shuddered at the sudden coolness that began spreading through his body. "What was that?"

Naminé collected his cup and began to clean it out with her magic. "It's a special tea designed to restrain your magic and decrease your metabolism for a short time. It'll help you get better. It also has a herb in it that will help you relax and get some sleep."

Axel narrowed his eyes. "So you're drugging me."

"To keep you from dying, yes." Naminé said, waving her wand so the china would float back over into her bag. "You'll be back to normal by the time we get to Hollow Bastion. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make Demyx some tea." She stood up and smoothed out her skirt before moving away to the kitchen. "Food will be ready in about fifteen minutes, but you can snack on some of the stuff that Demyx brought while you're waiting!" She called over her shoulder.

Grumbling, Axel crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. He glanced over at the pile of food for a few seconds before he grabbed a bag of chips and started to eat, figuring that if Naminé saw that he was eating something, she wouldn't give him a disappointed look.

It wasn't long before Kairi and Demyx had finished making lunch and were handing it out to everyone. Sora was given the task of taking food up to Donald and Goofy and seeing if they wanted anything else before he was able to sit down with the others and eat. Naminé and Demyx played "mother hen" for all of lunch with Axel and made sure he ate the most. Sora playfully whined about them giving Axel all of the food, which resulted in Kairi shoving a sandwich in his mouth to get him to be quiet.

The three days passed slowly. Axel laid around and slept most of the time, only waking up to use the bathroom or get something to eat. The others sat around and talked quietly and played games to pass the time or tried to get Donald and Goofy to take a break and let one of them drive.

They finally arrived at Hollow Bastion and got out of the gummi ship one by one. They all took the time to stretch and get their bearings before they began walking toward the floating chunks of land.

"So, I'm guessing we're suppose to go towards the big creepy castle, huh?" Axel remarked.

"Looks that way." Sora replied, his eyes determined. "Come on. Lets go."

Together the seven raced across the floating islets of land with Sora in the lead. Axel and Naminé fell to the rear, Axel still exhausted from the tea and his malnourished state and Naminé to make sure Axel wouldn't pass out. They encountered no heartless along the way, but none of them thought much about it. At the very top, Sora stopped, surprised by what - or rather who - he found.

"Riku!" He cried, starting forward.

Kairi reached out and snagged his hand, pulling him back to her. Her whole body trembled with fright and she looked at Riku with wide eyes. The dark, roiling energy that surrounded the boy was overpowering to her. A pale, crackling light danced around the fingertips of her right hand, ready to strike out if the silver-haired boy made one wrong move.

"Kairi," Sora craned his head to look at her. "What's wr--"

"Something's not right." She whispered hurriedly. By that time, Donald, Goofy, and Demyx had joined them. "There's a dark energy around him that's similar to the heartless. I--" Her voice faltered and she dug her nails into Sora's skin without even noticing. "I can't see it, but I can feel it. It's suffocating."

Sora gently eased Kairi's hand from his and gave her a smile. "I'll be okay. I know how to handle Riku."

"_You _know how to handle _me_?" Came a chillingly cold voice.

Sora looked up at Riku and was surprised by the darkness in the other boy's eyes. "Riku, what happened to you?" He asked fearfully. Only his determination kept him from crying right then and there.

"What happened to me?" Riku asked, his voice low and harsh. "I found what I was looking for. I found _power_. What did you find? A ragtag group of idiots." He sneers. "You don't even know the _true _power of _this_." He held up his weapon and Sora recoiled as if he'd been physically hit.

"That's Sora's." Kairi said, mustering up every bit of confidence she had. She stepped back when Riku turned his eyes on her.

Demyx reached over to take her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. Kairi stepped closer to him, welcoming the comfort and support he was offering.

"Keep playing with your toys with your little friends, Sora." Riku said scathingly. He tossed an old wooden sword to Sora's feet and then turned and began walking away. "Leave the adventuring up to me and go home."

Donald and Goofy stood unsurely by the edge of cliff, arguing with one another.

"The King told us to follow the key." Donald said stubbornly.

"But Donald, Sora's our friend. And Kairi has a keyblade too." Goofy reminded.

"But Sora's is the _Kingdom _Key." Donald persisted. "And now Riku has it. We have to follow him." He turned around and followed the silver-haired keyblade bearer as he marched toward the castle.

Goofy cast an apologetic look at Sora before following his friend. He had to at least go and keep Donald out of trouble. Who knows what the duck would get into without him around.

Sora waited until they were gone before he bent down and picked up the wooden sword he and Riku used to practice with. Then he straightened up and stared up at the castle.

"We still going or what?" Axel asked as he and Naminé joined them. "We didn't come all this way for nothing."

"We're still going." Sora said, determinedly. "Something's wrong with Riku and I'm going to find him, beat the shit out of him, and find out what the hell his problem is!"

Axel grinned. "I think I've been a bad influence on you, Sora. I like that plan." He summoned his chakrams and his eyes lit up as the familiar burst of heat pulsed through his body. "Lets go kick some ass so we can get home!"

* * *

Sora ducked under a burst of fire and slammed his sword into one of the Darkballs. Then he leapt into the air and flipped overtop a Defender, running his sword down its back as he landed. Then he spun around to knock away a Neo Shadow.

He too a quick moment to assess where his friends were and how many heartless were left. He nearly cursed, something Axel was only too proud of being the influence of, when he saw a whole new wave of heartless coming.

"Guys! Leave them and run for the door!" He yelled, hoping everyone would hear him.

Kairi was the first to knock a few heartless back and make a run for the door. Axel, breathing heavily but managing to keep a grin on his face, was next to follow. Then came Naminé and Demyx. Sora was the last one through the door.

Inside, they all got a chance to stop and breathe. Naminé healed a few wounds while Kairi handed out a few Ethers to Axel and Demyx.

"Now what?" Sora asked, looking around the entrance hall.

"So, you came after all." A cold voice echoed around them. "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised."

"Riku." Sora said, narrowing his eyes at the approaching figure. "I've come too far to give up! And I've got people counting on me!"

"Hmph." Riku walked over and stood in front of Sora. "Guess I'll have to teach you a lesson." He said before he easily summoned the keyblade to his hand.

Sora automatically slipped into a fighting stance, clutching the splintering wood of his sword. "You guys go on without me." He told his friends. "I'll catch up to you later. I promise."

Axel nodded in understanding. "C'mon, guys. Lets go wear down the evil guy for Sora so he can show off when he kicks his butt and the rest of us are exhausted." He tried to joke to lighten the air, but it didn't work. With a sigh, he gently took hold of Kairi's shoulders and steered her towards the door on the other side of the room.

"Axel, we can't leave--"

"Yes we can." Axel interrupted Kairi. "This is something Sora has to do on his own. He'll be fine."

Slowly, Axel, Kairi, Naminé, and Demyx left to find the heart of the castle, leaving Sora to fight Riku on his own.

Sora makes the first move as he runs toward Riku, determined to land the first hit. _'Keep your head clear!' _Leon's instructions ran through his head._ 'Keep every sense on high alert. Watch your enemy's every move and predict what they'll do next. Keep moving!'_

Moving as quickly as he possibly can, Sora tried to duck around Riku so he could hit him in the back and get the fight over with quickly. Instead, he got blasted back several feet and landed hard on his side. Before he could get up, Riku sent another blast or raw energy at him. Sora shut his eyes tightly, hoping that by some miracle the attack wouldn't hit him. He looked up in surprise when he heard the energy collide with something in front of him.

"Goofy!" He cried when he saw the talking canine.

"I know it means goin' against the King's wishes, but I can't just stand by and watch Sora get hurt either." Goofy said. "Sorry Donald."

"Wait a minute!" Donald squawked, running over. "Sora's my friend too!"

Sora looked at them in surprise as he sat up. "I am?" He asked.

"Of course." Goofy said, holding out a hand to help Sora up. "You and Kairi and all of the others are our friends."

A smile spread across Sora's face. "Yeah, and they're counting on us to catch up to them so we can finish this together."

"Finish it with what?" Riku asked scornfully. "What power do you have that makes you so special? Without your _friends_," He spat the word. "You are nothing!"

"That may be true. My friends are what gives me my strength." Sora said, lowering his sword. "Without them I wouldn't have anything to fight for." He tightened his grip on the modest weapon and then glared at Riku. "My friends are my power!"

The keyblade disappeared from Riku's hand and reappeared before Sora in a shower of golden sparkles. With a smile, the brunet took the weapon and was relieved to feel the familiar thrum of energy rushing through his body.

"You'll regret this, Sora." Riku said darkly, before he turned around and walked away, opening a portal and disappearing into its depths.

Sadly, Sora let the keyblade fall to his side, nearly touching the ground. "Maybe…. I'm too late to save Riku." He murmured. Then he shook his head. "No! I'm not too late! I have to think positive! I bet this Ansem guy has something to do with why Riku's acting so weird!" He looked to Donald and Goofy, hoping they would agree with him.

"There's only one way to find out." Goofy said. "Lets go meet up with the others."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Lets go."

* * *

Kairi led the way down a darkened hall, her keyblade held high to help illuminate the way. Demyx was right behind her helping to keep lookout and behind him was Axel. Naminé brought up the rear, also serving as lookout.

"There's something ahead." Kairi said, her voice slicing easily through the gloom and silence. "It's some kind of weird rainbow-ish light."

Demyx stood on his toes and peered ahead to see if he could spot what she was talking about. "I see it. It looks like some kind of doorway. Hey, you don't think it's that door to the heart of this world, do you?"

"It could very easily be." Naminé murmured. "Keep going. We're getting close."

They continued down the hall and soon came to an open room with glass cases on either side. Kairi stepped closer to one to get a better look and then gasped.

"Axel, it's Alice!" She whispered fearfully.

Axel looked surprised. "Alice? Are you sure? Why is she here?"

"She's a Princess of Heart." Naminé said, trying to keep her voice steady. "They all are."

"Isn't there suppose to be thirteen of them?" Demyx asked, quickly adding up the glass cases. "I only see twelve, so the gate can't be open yet, right?"

Axel, noticing that Naminé was looking around nervously and not saying anything else, dropped back to talk to her quietly as they walked past the twelve sleeping princesses.

"You know a lot about all of this." He commented in a friendly, conversational tone. "Care to explain?"

"No." Naminé said shortly, quickening her pace to breeze past him.

Axel sped up to walk alongside of her. "You know who the thirteenth is." He stated, no longer sounding curious. "At least tell me if you know if she's safe or not."

"She's as safe as she possibly could be." Naminé allowed the one little piece of information to be heard. "Lets catch up to Kairi and Demyx. There's a presence up ahead that I don't like the feel of."

The two hurried and caught up the Demyx and Kairi and together they walked onto the platform before the door. There waiting for them was Riku, now clad in a form-fitting blue and black outfit that had a heartless symbol plastered onto the chest.

"Well, if it isn't the keyblade heroes." He said, his voice sounded distorted and horribly warped. It was as if there was two people speaking and one was beginning to overpower the other.

Naminé frowned, trying to place where she had heard the second voice before. It sounded so familiar and she knew it was important. She closed her eyes and tried to separate Riku's voice from the familiar one as he continued to rant. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.

"You're not Ansem!" She yelled.

"Ah, Naminé." The not-Riku turned his attention to her. For a moment, a tall, hazy form could be seen behind Riku's body. "It has been too long."

"Not long enough!" Naminé spat, her eyes narrowed in hatred. "You've taken things way too far!"

"On the contrary." The hazy form flickered behind Riku again. "My plans have only just began. And I see you have brought the final princess to me. How excellent."

The others looked at Naminé in confusion, wondering what the guy was talking about.

"_DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" _Naminé screamed.

"Hmph." The possessed Riku summoned an entirely new, very dark looking keyblade. "_I _won't have to."

Naminé pushed off against the floor as the possessed Riku drew back his arm to throw the keyblade. Her powder blue sandals smacked against the floor as she ran as fast as she could to Kairi, intent on pushing her aside. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the Dark Keyblade streamlined through the air straight for Kairi. At the last moment, Naminé pushed Kairi aside, catching the keyblade in her back and through her chest.

An explosion of light whited out the room and once it cleared the large keyhole was bathed in a shimmering silver light and the possessed Riku, as well as the Dark Keyblade, was gone.

"N-Naminé!" Kairi gasped, crawling over to the heavily injured blonde. She ignored the steadily growing puddle of blood and pulled the girl into her arms, tears prickling at her eyes. "Naminé? Naminé! Please open your eyes!"

It was a few minutes before Kairi saw unfocused blue eyes looking up into her own. A sad smile spread across the blonde's lips.

"I'm so sorry, princess." She murmured as she closed her eyes.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrived just as Naminé's body disappeared in a shower of glistening, silver sparkles. Sobs wracked Kairi's small form as she curled herself into a ball.

"NAMINÉ!" Her scream was heart-wrenching and made everyone feel as if a block of ice cold lead had plunged down their throats.

A slim silver chain dangling from Kairi's arm went unnoticed for some time, as they slipped into a state of mourning.

* * *

Axel recklessly threw one chakram and then brought up a wall of fire in front of him. Behind him, Demyx formed his water into a whip while water clones wielding music notes dances around slaying heartless. A short distance away was Donald and Goofy, who were using all of their skills to keep heartless away from the large barrier behind them. Within that barrier, Kairi and Sora fought Ansem and his large shadow creature that they all assumed was his true heartless form.

"There's got to be something more we can do!" Demyx yelled, frustrated.

"Doesn't look that way!" Axel yelled back. "Keep fighting! We have to keep the heartless from entering the barrier!" Eyes blazing, he whipped up a wall of fire around an unguarded part of the barrier.

"We can't keep fighting forever!" Demyx argued, spinning his whip even longer before snapping it out to cut cleanly through several heartless.

"Then we'd better hope that Kairi and Sora win soon!" Axel replied.

The flood of heartless soon began to slow bit by bit until there were no more. While Demyx sat down on the ground and let his water clones fall into puddles, Axel turned around to peer through the barrier. His eyes widened when he saw Riku's faded form holding Ansem back so Kairi and Sora could deliver the final blow.

Axel couldn't help but smile_. 'Well, there's one friend who has been found.'_ Then he sank down to the ground beside Demyx, intent on getting some well deserved rest. But after only a few minutes the ground beneath them began to shudder and break apart, forcing the two to their feet.

"Sora, what's going on?!" Kairi yelled.

"I don't know!" Sora yelled back. "Axel, Demyx, are you still here?!

The two teens could spot Sora's familiar brown hair over the small rise of the crater, but just barely. They knew they wouldn't be able to see him for long, as the piece of land they were on was floating further and further away.

"We're here!" Axel yelled. "I don't think we will for much longer, though!"

"I'll come find you!" Sora promised. "I'll come back and find you and then we'll go find Riku and Roxas together! That's a promise, Axel!"

Axel nodded, banishing all wonderings of what happened to make Riku disappear again. "I'll hold you to that! And I'll be waiting!"

"And I will be too!" Demyx stubbornly yelled, not wanting to be left out. "So don't forget!"

By then they were so far away that they could barely make out what each other was saying. Demyx and Axel could barely make out Sora's yell of, "Don't worry!" before they drifted out of sight.

"Why haven't we broken apart?" Demyx wondered out loud.

Axel shrugged. "Maybe we're going in the same direction. Might as well enjoy our time together." He paused for a moment and looked around. Upon seeing nothing but blank space, he grinned and asked, "Wanna play 'I Spy'?"

Demyx grinned as well. "I spy, with my little eye, something…"

* * *

Kairi shivered and looked around on the deserted beach she landed on. Above her, stars glistened against a midnight sky and a crescent moon illuminated the white sand. She stood and watched as stars streaked across the sky. It didn't last for too long and then Kairi's vision went dark as she crumpled to the ground, exhausted.

* * *

"Kairi!"

The auburn-haired girl was awakened to someone shaking her and calling her name. Wearily, she blinked open her blue-violet eyes and tried to focus on the person in front of her. Finding that she couldn't, she closed her eyes again.

"Where are my glasses?" She asked tiredly.

"Oh! Here!" The person handed her the glasses and politely waited for her to put them on before asking, "Are you okay?"

Kairi stared in surprise at the person in front of her. She took in his pitch black hair and the rumpled black t-shirt with the yellow pac-man on it and would have cried if she weren't so shocked. "Katsuo! But- how? It can't have been a dream!" She reached up to touch her hair and was unsure if she was relieved or not to find that her hair was cut short and neat around her ears. She looked down at her clothes, or rather the clothes previously owned by Aerith, just to double check and then she threw her arms around Katsuo's neck.

"It wasn't a dream." She whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "It wasn't a dream."

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Man, I feel like I've been in a really violent mood lately with what I've been doing to characters. First I have Axel being badly affected by his powers, then I kill Namine off, and in my original story I have a character who got a door slammed into the back of her head. And I've got a "Xigbar shooting a seagull" part in the next chapter of "Food Stories". Geez! I need to get away from the violence a little! The next chapter will help a little.

OKAY!

Next chapter is the last one. And the only thing it will do is cause more questions and confusion. _Yay. _Note that that was, indeed, a sarcastic "yay". Unfortunently for you all, those questions won't be answered for quite a while since, after the final chapter, I will be taking a break to get some schoolwork out of the way (How am I going to survive college next year?) and then will be either diving into the rewrite of 'Eye of the Storm' or my next fun story titled 'Princess'. After that I'll have gotten enough chapter of THE SEQUEL!!!! written.

Yeah. Sequel.

I'm _really _hating my brain right now.

Technically, the sequel isn't so much of a sequel as it is Part Two of this story. I've got the name and my summary, but I've got a lot to work out before I can even think about posting it. It'll be called 'Kioku no Kusari', which somewhat roughly translates to 'Chain of Memory', however it's more of a KH2 than it is the Game Boy side game.

So now you know something I wasn't going to tell you until the very last chapter. Luckily for you I'm really tired right now and am in no mood to be all secretive. Next chapter will be up soon. And by soon I mean some time within the next week. It could be tomorrow or three days from now. Heck, it could be exactly one week from now before I get it posted, although since it's looking to be a short chapter it won't take me until next Tuesday. So, until then!


	13. Chapter 13: Connection

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Disney and Square Enix.

* * *

**Herutsu no Oukoku**

_Chapter 13: Connection_

Demyx ran down a rocky path as fast as he could. He didn't trip even once over any of the jutting rocks or the branches of trees that were laying across the path. Tall trees bursting with leaves towered overhead. He burst into a clearing at last and was greeted by the sight of his modest, 1-story home set against the sunset sky.

"Melody!" He yelled happily upon seeing a tall blonde woman standing in the front yard tending to the garden. When she heard her name yelled, she turned around to look.

Color and shapes bled together as Demyx rushed over to her and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He breathed in her calming scent of an early spring rain and nearly began to cry.

"Demyx, what's wrong?" Melody asked. Her ocean blue-green eyes, so much like his own, widened in worry.

Demyx sniffed and pulled away, looking her over to check and see if she looked the way he remembered. Her crimped blonde hair was still long and untamable and parted over to one side. She still wore her favorite floral hair clip to keep her bangs from falling in her eyes. She wore her ocean-like wrap around skirt and a pale blue tank top; the same thing she was wearing the day their world was lost.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He murmured.

Melody opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment four kids burst out of the house and practically attacked Demyx in their eagerness. Demyx couldn't help but laugh and give each of his little cousins a hug back.

Seeing them all safe and unhurt filled his heart with uncontainable joy and for a while he was able to let go of all his worries and forget that he had been fighting for his life not very long ago. He pushed all of that aside to spend time with his family.

* * *

Numbly, Axel walked away from Roxas's house. He wasn't there.

He wasn't at the Usual Spot. Or the café. Or the top of Sunset Station.

In his heart, Axel knew that he wouldn't find Roxas anywhere in Twilight Town. He was still somewhere out there in another world. And all he could for time being was wait. Wait for Sora to arrive in Twilight Town and find him. Wait for some miracle that would lead him to Roxas.

Axel reached into his pants and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. Written on it was Demyx's address. It turned out that Demyx lived on the outskirts of Twilight Town.

Instead of going home where his dad would undoubtedly begin questioning him about his adventures again, he followed the instructions Demyx had written down and soon arrived at a quaint, 1-story house. Feeling uneasy by the unfamiliarity of the landscape, Axel shoved his hands in his pockets and walked slowly to the door. He hesitated a moment before knocking.

After a minute or two, the door was opened by a little boy who looked very much like Demyx, except with curlier hair.

"Hey," Axel said, feeling awkward. "Is Demyx here?"

The little boy nodded and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

"Can you go get him?"

Again, the little boy nodded. Then he removed his thumb from his mouth and yelled, "Demyx!" before scampering off into the house.

Demyx appeared at the end of the hallway and grinned when he saw Axel. "Hey, I wasn't expecting you over so soon." He greeted, jogging down the hallway. "Heard from Sora yet?"

Axel shook his head. "Not a word. I…" He stopped, his voice leaving him for a moment. "Roxas isn't here."

Demyx's face fell. "Axel… I…" He bit his lip and looked away for a moment, unable to think of what to say that might help. With his luck, he would make things worse and then he'd have to deal with a crying Axel and then he would start crying too.

"Demyx," Melody stepped into the hallway wearing a blue apron. She smiled when she saw Axel. "Hello there. Would you like to join us for tea? I was just getting ready to make some." She beamed when Axel nodded and then she hurried back to the kitchen.

"My sister, Melody." Demyx said, correctly interpreting Axel's questioning look. "Come one, lets go talk." He led Axel to the back patio and the two sat out there and talked for the next four hours.

* * *

Months after her return to her world, Kairi found herself standing on a beach. Her hair had grown out and the longest ends just barely brushed her shoulders. Her glasses were gone and replaced by contacts. Her school uniform, a simple white button-down shirt and a navy blue skirt, emphasized her curves. She slipped off her shoes and socks and then walked into the water.

Staring out over the water, she was filled with a sense of calm and security. She wiggled her toes in the water and sand, and giggled at the tickling sensation.

'_I wish the others were here.' _She couldn't help but think. She reached up to touch the charm and slim chain that dangled from a necklace she wore. The charm was an ornate heart that seemed to glow when the light was dim. It was the chain that Naminé left behind for her. Being a chain for her keyblade, Kairi felt even safer with it tucked securely against her chest where she could reach it.

Kairi took a step back and then bent down, looping one arm around her legs to prevent her skirt from showing her underwear. In the wet sand she quickly traced out the design of a heart. The bottom of the heart split into two curving lines and from those lines came several more spiraling lines.

"A connection." She whispered as a wave came in and washed away the design.

"Kairi!" Katsuo yelled, getting her attention.

Kairi turned her head and smiled and waved at him before turning all the way around and looking back out over the water.

* * *

A cloaked figure walked across a bright room. The blackness of the cloak stood out greatly against the whiteness of the walls, floor, and ceiling. In the middle of the room stood three flower-like pods. Upon reaching the middle pod, the figure reached out and ran a gloved hand over the side of it before throwing back the hood of the cloak.

Long, dark blonde hair trailed down her back, wrapped in a tight braid to keep it out of the way. Icy, silver-blue eyes peered out from beneath her bangs, focused solely on the pod before her.

"Mnexina." A second cloaked figure appeared. He was even taller than Mnexina. "You may have helped us, but you are not welcome here any longer."

Mnexina turned around and glared at the figure. "I was just leaving." Her voice was piercingly cold, but the cloaked male didn't so much as flinch.

"Allow me to escort you out." He said.

Mnexina smirked. "No need." She said, snapping her fingers. Behind her, a dark portal appeared. Pulling her cloak around her, she walked into it and let it close behind her. "Just a little more time." She murmured.

* * *

THE END

* * *

Well, that's it. That's the last chapter I will be writing for this part. Now I can take a nice break and concentrate on school work. (_Pfft_, like that's really gonna happen.) Knowing me, I'll get distracted and start working on one-shots or something.

Anyway, Part 2 for this "series" will be called "Kioku no Kusari" and it will take place 1 year later, much like KH2 does. And I have a request, any advice on how to make the second one a little better or a little more interesting would be greatly appreciated. Is my writing style too confusing? I can tone that down a little (I think). Should I shorten the sentences? Add more descriptions? Things like that.

Also, Kudos to anyone who can figure out what Mnexina's "Somebody's" name is. (It's not that hard, actually.)

I almost forgot to mention that KnK won't be the very next story that I post. A friend of mine wants me to finish up another KH fanfiction I've started that's called "Princess", so that will most likely be the next one. Plus, I need something more light-hearted to work on and some more time to gather ideas for KnK.


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